In this file photo, the skies above the newly built National Sports Complex, Vientiane, are alit during the opening ceremony of the 2009 SEA Games. Myanmar seems certain to hold the competition in 2013. Pic: AFPMyanmar is stepping up its campaign to host the 27th SEA Games. Whilst officials were still unable to announce specific details about the event, organizers are now making necessary preparations to hold the games in 2013.
U Khin Maung Lwin, the Joint Secretary General of the Myanmar Olympic Committee, told The Myanmar Times that rumors reported by local media that Myanmar was having to compete with other countries for the games were untrue.
“Southeast Asian member countries want Myanmar to hold the games because we haven’t done so since 1969,” U Khin Maung Lwin said.
“I can’t announce that Myanmar will host the games in 2013 however we are trying to get the games and a definite answer will be made after final approval by the SEA Games Federation Council meeting in April,” he said.
Singapore was forced to relinquish the 27th SEA Games, last December, due to delays in building the required infrastructure.
Singapore has begun building a S$1.87 billion (US$1.34 billion) Sports Hub which was scheduled to be finished this year.
However a report in Singapore’s Straits Times, last December, said that the project had suffered major delays due to a rise in construction costs and the effects of the global economic downturn.
At the last SEA Games council meeting– held in Vientiane, Laos, December 8– member countries urged Myanmar to host the event but Myanmar’s proposal was unable to be confirmed until after government approval.
U Khin Maung Lwin said that the government had been in contact with officials from the Ministry of Sport and had instructed them to prepare athletes and organisers for the event .
“We have three years to build new stadiums plus we are already constructing new stadiums in Nay Pyi Taw,” he said.
Max Myanmar Construction Company, owned by Myanmar Football Federation president U Zaw Zaw, is currently building the 30,000 seat Zabu Thiri Stadium, along with another stadium of equal proportions, in the country’s new administrative capital of Nay Pyi Taw. A foundation laying ceremony for the structures was held, January 13, at the 150-acre compound. Whilst the exact cost of the games is still far from being calculated, U Khin Maung Lwin is expecting the costs to be comparable to the Laos 2009 SEA Games.
“They spent only $US80 million dollars on constructing the new National Sports Complex,” he said.
“China sold the Olympic village as apartments prior to the games, Laos used the sporting village as a university residence and in the Philippines, athletes and delegates stayed in hotels,” he said
Myanmar held the games in 1962 and 1969 at the iconic Aung San Stadium, built in 1918. Myanmar finished first on both occasions.
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