Samsung undecided on sport financial help
Samsung undecided on sport financial help
JAKARTA (JP): South Korean electronic giant PT Samsung
Electronics Indonesia (SEI) will decide early next year whether
it will give financial support to the training program for the
2001 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
"We will make a decision about the issue in January. We
haven't talked about cooperation with the National Sports Council
(KONI) yet," said Lee Kang-hyun, the company's general manager
for marketing on Thursday, during a journalists award ceremony
staged by the company.
Samsung was one of the official sponsors for the 2000 Olympic
Games in Sydney and SEI supported the Indonesian contingent with
financial aid and electronic goods.
Lee also said that his company was still considering
sponsoring a sport in the biennial event.
"We have no idea which sport will be given our support.
Currently, there are two sports which currently hire a South
Korean coach, taekwondo and archery. We have not talked with them
about sponsorships yet," he said.
Lee declined to reveal next year's budget for sports
marketing, but he hinted that the amount is likely to equal this
year's Rp 2 billion (US$ 210,527).
He expressed satisfaction on cooperating with KONI for the
Olympics.
"The company believes that it has been successful in
supporting the Indonesian team as they managed to win a gold,
three silver and two bronze medals at the Sydney Olympics. But we
still don't know the correlation with our selling figures in the
country."
"It's more important that the public starts to relate Samsung
with successful sports achievements because public brand
awareness is extremely important."
Separately, taekwondoin Juana Wangsa Putri said that she was
still practicing as part of a local training program organized by
KONI.
"But I have not yet received a centralized training program
which will start early next year. I am practicing with the
Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Taekwondoin Association in
preparation for the SEA Games team selection and for the next
Jakarta taekwondo championships," she said.
She also said that the selection would take place in the
second LG national taekwondo championships next February. (ivy)