"The main agenda of the meeting will be among others discussing the effort to build a common agreement among ASEAN member states to set up an ASEAN sports body," Lalu Wildan, deputy for harmonization and partnership to the youth and sports minister, said on Wednesday.
ASEAN now had an official body which only dealt with youth affairs and the body held a meeting once every year, he said following a meeting with Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X.
"Therefore, Indonesia through the youth and sports ministry has initiated an ASEAN sports ministers meeting as part of efforts to set up an ASEAN official sports body," he said.
He said the formation of the official sports body of international standard was a milestone to promote ASEAN sports. In principle, the official sports body would facilitate coordination among ASEAN member states in the sports field.
"As such, there will be a permanent body in charge of formulating policies in the sports field. It would be better if what we have agreed upon and considered strategic would be jointly formulated by forming a secretariat," he said.
He said the ASEAN sports ministers meeting would be the first ever held in the world. So far, six of 10 ASEAN member states had confirmed a plan to take part in the meeting.
ASEAN groups Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
(Uu.S012/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
