All matters relating to the implementation success of the Asian Games 2018 such as its infrastructure, implementation, including the (athletes) achievement have been prepared.
The facilities, being built, will be used for test games, namely badminton in January 2018 and the nine other sports in February 2018.
The preparation progress of the venues construction was expressed by Puan Maharani, Coordinating Minister for Culture and Human Development after a limited cabinet meeting presided over by Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in the Presidential Palace in the West Java Provincial City of Bogor on Tuesday.
Additionally, at the cabinet meeting, the Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) said that the athletes that have potential to gain gold medals will undergo try out matches in the upcoming December 2017 and January 2018.
The try out matches will also be carried out abroad, according to Maharani.
On Friday (Oct.20), Maharani stated that renovation of the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) main stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia, as one of the venues for the 2018 Asian Games is on schedule.
"Hopefully, by November 2017, preparations for all venues for the 2018 Asian Games will have been completed," she stated.
The ministers and ranking officials that attended the cabinet meeting were the Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi, Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, Governor of Jakarta Anies Baswedan, and the South Sumatra governor Alex Noerdin in where their provinces will host the Asian Games.
Previously, KONI expressed optimism that Indonesia would reach the top 10 ranking target in the 2018 Asian Games.
"We will work hard to meet the target in less than 10 months, in accordance with the demand of the government (to reach) top 10," Tono Suratman, general chairman of KONI executive board, said after a meeting at the Youth and Sports Affairs Ministry, in Jakarta recently.
KONI will improve the quality of human resources to implement the national training supervisory duties, including the supervision of athletes selected by their respective sports, he stated.
Suratman added that KONI will help the Youth and Sports Affairs Ministry regarding the supervision of the implementation of national training center, following the Presidential Regulation No. 95 of 2017 on National Sports Achievement Improvement, which replaces Presidential Regulation 15/2016 regarding the Indonesia Gold Program.
The Indonesian athletes, who will compete in the Asian Games, will also be groomed for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
The 18th Asian Games, a regional sporting event for Asian nations, will be co-hosted by Jakarta and Palembang (South Sumatra) simultaneously from August 18 to September 2, 2018. The Games will have at least 38 sports events.
Thousands of athletes from 54 countries are expected to participate in the games.
This will be the second time for Indonesia to host the Asian Games after the first one being held in Jakarta in 1962 under the leadership of President Soekarno.
In the meantime, Director of Broadcast of the Asian Games 2018 organizing committee INASGOC Linda Wahyudi said earlier that INASGOC will use a total of 427 high definition cameras to broadcast all sports events live except bridge and squash.
INASGOC has signed a contract with Swiss International Games and Broadcast Services (IGBS) as a partner in broadcasting Asian Games 2018 live.
A Japanese broadcasting company, Dentsu, will be the Asian Games 2018 broadcast rights holder, while the Emtek Group has the broadcast rights of Asian Games 2018 for Indonesia.
"Asian Games 2018 broadcast will be distributed to all Asian and Latin American countries except Brazil," Linda said.
The number of sports events to be broadcasted live were reduced from 55 to 38.
The organizer will also broadcast the opening and closing ceremony of Asian Games 2018.
Linda revealed that production cost to broadcast a sporting in a single arena is about US$350 thousand with five cameras at the least.
The athletic will be the most expensive 18th Asian Games sport event to broadcast as it will require 37 cameras, one helicopter, and around four motorcycles, all of which will cost around US$ one million, Linda said.
INASGOC needs Rp800 billion for the cost of broadcasting the matches of 38 sports, opening ceremony and closing ceremony of the Asian Games.
Infrastructure, implementation, and achievement are three significant aspects that are being given attention by Indonesia, as the host of the 2018 Asian Games, according to Vice President M Jusuf Kalla, concurrently chairman of the steering committee of the Asian Games.
Previously, Kalla added that many sponsorships have come in to support the 2018 Asian Games.
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
