Source: Phnom Penh Post
THE ROYAL Government has approved the National Olympic Committee of
Cambodia’s proposal to host the 2023 SEA Games, clearing the path for
the Kingdom to realise a dream that was shattered in 1963.
 |
| Cambodia appears set to host the SEA Games in 2023 after Prime Minister
Hun Sen approved the NOCC's proposal. Photograph: Sreng Meng Srun/Phnom
Penh Post |
The nod for what will be the Kingdom’s biggest sports spectacle came four days ago with the blessing of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Within hours of the offic-ial letter of approval landing at NOCC
headquarters in Phnom Penh, the news was splashed over social-media
websites including Facebook.
The NOCC will formally place its bid for the biennial event — the
second-largest in the region after the Asian Games — before a 2015 SEA
Games Executive Council meeting in Singapore.
“It’s just a matter of procedure, and the Executive Council’s
approval is a mere formality ,” NOCC secretary- general Vath Chamroeun
told the Post yesterday.
“We’re already halfway through a master plan co-ordinated by several
ministries including Education, Transport, Tourism, Health, Fin-ance and
Human Resources.
“Allowing a margin for inflation and cost escalation over the next 10
years, we are estimating the organisational cost at three to four
million dollars.
“But creating the infrastructure and developing human resources will cost us a lot more.
“Ten years may seem a faraway thought, but we need that time to be
absolutely ready on all fronts, and the work has already begun.”
Chamroeun said transport and human-resource management would be pivotal areas.
Under the master plan, the NOCC will create infrastructure including
the main stadium while upgrading all other facilities for a two-week
event that attracts thousands of athletes and officials from the 11
ASEAN nations.
NOCC president and Toursim Minister Thong Khon said: “I am very happy
that the uncertainty about the SEA Games has been cleared. I am
thankful to the Government and the Prime Minister for taking this huge
step.”
Of the five founder members of the SEA Games, Cambodia is the only
one to have missed out on its rotation as a host. The Original Five, as
they are known – Thailand, Burma (now Myanmar), Mal-aya (now Malaysia),
Laos and Cambodia — created a peninsular vision in 1959 that eventually
led to the birth of the SEA Games.
But history took a devious turn. Cambodia was awarded the 1963
edition, but political instability and financial constraints at the time
contrived with other extraneous factors, forcing the country to step
back as a host.
Conditions were even worse when Cambodia was offered a chance to
stage the 1966 Games. Since then, the Kingdom has only been a guest at
this coveted regional sporting assembly, having been forced to turn down
several invitat-ions to hold it on home soil.
Troubled times in the 1970s and ’80s, and painful rebuilding in the
’90s, shut down all possibilities of the country taking on such a
mammoth responsibility.
Every member country in the ASEAN community has made it clear that
Cambodia would be granted the hosting rights any time it is ready, even
if it were to be another member nation’s turn.
The NOCC is measuring up its own high expectations of staging the Games with the realities on the ground.
The country’s prime sports body reckons 10 years should be long
enough to achieve the organisational excellence to make the 2023 edition
a unique experience.
As part of its infrastructure expansion, Phnom Penh’s second multi-purpose stad-ium is taking shape.
Modern office space for all the NOCC-affiliated federat-ions has been
created under one roof within the National Sports Complex, surrounding
the Olympic Stadium.
Cambodia’s resolve to stage the Games has never been higher. Ten more
years of waiting for this landmark may well be worthy enough to wipe
clean the frustrations of the past 50.
