"Actually, I want the companies to be involved in the sport; for example, Pertamina, as the state oil and gas company, is responsible for football and can win continuously," Jokowi stated at the 2018 Asian Games Promotion event and the launching of the Indonesia Continuous Road Program at the Bogor Presidential Palace Complex on Saturday.
He also mentioned other examples, such as PT Djarum, which could play a role in the development of badminton sports, and Bank Mandiri, in the basketball sport.
"But we have to win continuously if we are aware of the importance of promoting a sport," the president remarked at the event, which was also attended by Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi.
The Head of State acknowledged that currently, there are regulations that prohibit BUMNs from playing a role in helping the development of sports.
"For example, in football, the regional state budget could be used to promote the sport in the past,, but then it was banned because of some cases of misuse of fund," he revealed.
He mentioned that many regional heads had been arrested for providing assistance to coaching soccer.
"We want to review this again. Sometimes just because of one or two cases, everything will be disturbed," he explained.
According to him, if these conditions continue to go unchecked, sports cannot be developed further.
"We only calculated this regulation and reviewed it again in a sense whether it was about the ball or not. Later, BUMN (state owned companies) could enter the sports," the president said.
He also appreciated the steps taken by the state-owned enterprises ministry of BUMN and the ministry of state apparatus empowerment and democratic reform that had opened a wide door for high-achieving athletes to enter BUMN without testing.
"This regulation has already been in place since two or three weeks, especially from the ministry of state apparatus empowerment and democratic reform," he added.
The former governor of DKI Jakarta pointed out that BUMNs that promote a certain sport and their achievements would provide a good image to the BUMN.
"If they do not achieve, it will be a bad image. If they are good, they will raise the image of the company," Jokowi noted.
Reported by Agus Salim
Edited by Eliswan, Yoseph Haryadi
Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
