Government says no to Asiad

KUALA LUMPUR: The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) will have to forget about hosting the 2010 Asian Games. 

The Cabinet yesterday decided not to endorse the Olympic Council of Malaysia's (OCM) plan to bid for the Games.  

HIGH HOPE DASHED: The logo the OCM had designed for the bid.

With the decision, Kuala Lumpur is deemed to have withdrawn and China's Guangzhou has automatically won the bid to host the 16th edition of the Games. 

Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman Said said after chairing her first post-Cabinet briefing that they rejected the bid because of the high cost involved in staging a multi-sports meet. 

“The Cabinet discussed this in the meeting today (yesterday) and we have decided not to offer to host the 2010 Asian Games. According to the estimation by the OCM, the government will need to spend about US$366.128mil (RM1.391bil) to host the Games,” she said. 

Under the proposed budget outlined in the bid papers, a new Games Village was to be built for US$200mil while the remaining amount was for operational costs.  

However, OCM secretary-general Datuk Sieh Kok Chi clarified later yesterday that the Games Village need not be built as existing facilities in Bukit Jalil and Universiti Putra Malaysia could be used. 

Azalina said the Cabinet's decision was final. “I will instruct my ministry's secretary-general (Datuk Talaat Hussain) to officially inform the OCM about the Cabinet's decision.” 

Azalina said the decision did not mean that Malaysia was not interested in hosting major international events in the future.  

“We have just formed a government under a new leadership. There are a lot of things to look into and plan ... and not just about hosting the Asian Games. The cost is too high,” she said. 

On the question of whether Malaysia's decision to opt out of the bidding process would cause any negative implications to its international image, Azalina said: “There are many areas we can focus on, not just hosting international events. 

In the run-up to the Asian Games bid, Malaysia cleared the first hurdle when a five-member evaluation committee of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), led by vice-president Celso Dayrit, gave the thumbs up to the city’s ability to host the Games after a two-day visit. 

They inspected several sports facilities and infrastructure around the city. 

During a news conference on Tuesday, Dayrit said Malaysia needed just a letter of endorsement from the government and an impressive presentation to be selected as hosts. 

Dayrit and his team also stressed that Kuala Lumpur's bid must come with the letter of endorsement from the government.  

“Without the letter, Malaysia will lose to Guangzhou, which is fully backed by the Chinese government,” he said.  

This is the second time that Kuala Lumpur's hopes to host the Asian Games have been dashed. Kuala Lumpur lost to Doha (Qatar) in the final bidding for the 2006 Asian Games. 

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