TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Olympics Committee of Asia (OCA) delegates are slated to pay Indonesia a visit on Friday, November 27, 2015, according to the spokesperson for the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry, Gatot Dewabroto. The spokesperson said that the committee is scheduled to meet with all stakeholders involved to discuss the preliminary preparations for the upcoming 2018 Asian Games.
"OCA is planning to explain the necessary preparations that needs to be done, as well as to outline how other nations who had hosted other similar sporting events that carries the organisations name," said Gatot.
Indonesia is currently speeding up the pace of its' preparations for the upcoming Games - in fact, it is still way behind as Indonesia has yet to submit a masterplan draft, which was supposed to be completed and submitted in September 2015. As a result, none of the planned preparations could be executed this year.
The Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry is also still struggling to come up with the budget to execute its' preparations, because the House of Representatives (DPR) has rejected its' proposal to get government funding from the 2016 State Budget (APBN). In the proposal, the Ministry had asked the government for Rp1,2 trillion; Rp505 billion to run the games, and Rp765 billion to renovate the Gelora Bung Karno Complex.
DPR had only approved Rp500 billion for the renovation of the outdated complex.
Gatot explained that although OCA's visit is not meant to push Indonesia to accelerate its' preparations, the government wants to show at least some progress to the delegations, that Indonesia is indeed committed to host the regional sporting event. "This is why we want to push all stakeholders to finish the masterplan, so we can submit it in time for their arrival," he said.
It should be noted that Gatot is also the Head of the 2018 Masterplan Drafting Committee.
OCA last paid Jakarta a visit in August 2015 - when they had asked Indonesia to fork over some US$30 million (equivalent to Rp420 billion) to fund the advertisment and broadcast of the event to the world, as well as some US$15 million or Rp210 billion as a security deposit, marketing, as well as public relation fees.
TRI SUHARMAN
