On the afternoon of July 8, the Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) held an online session to discuss the organization of the 31st SEA Games. The conference was attended by 20 delegates, representing Olympic Committees of 11 countries, leading members of the SEAGF Office. The Vietnamese delegation attended the conference with 3 members, including Mr. Tran Duc Phan, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Sports Administration cum Deputy Head of the Organizing Committee of 31st SEA Games; Mr. Hoang Vinh Giang, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Olympic Committee, member of SEAGF Office and Mr. Tran Van Manh, General Secretary of Vietnam Olympic Committee.
The majority of delegates attending the conference supported and highly agreed to move the 31st SEA Games to 2022.
At this conference, Mr. Tran Duc Phan, representative of the 31st SEA Games Organizing Committee, thanked the delegates for their interest in the organization of the 31st SEA Games in Vietnam. However, due to the increasingly complicated situation of the Covid-19 pandemic in Southeast Asian countries and Vietnam as well as in that context, the 31st SEA Games Organizing Committee has made great efforts in the preparation and organization of the SEA Games, and at the same time considered choosing the most optimal option to advise the leaders on organizing a safe and successful SEA Games.
Regarding this issue, the delegates once again expressed concern about the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia with the number of infected cases increasing day by day and wished that Vietnam would soon have official information about the organization of 31st SEA Games.
The delegates also discussed further if the 31st SEA Games cannot be held at the previously scheduled time from November 21 to December 2, 2021, then Vietnam may consider delaying it to 2022 at the time. The most suitable time to activities plan in other countries and Cambodia is April or May.
The 31st SEA Games is scheduled to be held in April or May, to match the activities plans of the countries.
After discussion, Mr. Dato Seri Chaiyapak Siriwat, Chairman of the Conference and Chief of SEAGF Office informed delegates about the possibility of organizing the 31st SEA Games in the current complicated situation of Covid 19 pandemic or delaying to 2022 and for countries to facilitate the implementation of Sports activities plans for 2021 and 2022 as well as for the 31st SEA Games’ Organizing Committee to officially propose to the Government of Vietnam, the Chairman of the Conference has consulted with delegates attending the conference about not holding the 31st SEA Games this year. This proposal was highly supported and unanimously approved by the participants in the conference.
Thus, the 31st SEA Games has been officially postponed after many meetings over the past 2 months when the Covid-19 pandemic situation worsened in many countries. For Vietnam, the pandemic makes the preparation for the organization of the SEA Games difficult.
After the end of the SEAGF Office’s Conference, Mr. Tran Duc Phan said that the 31st SEA Games’ Organizing Committee had a report and was waiting for the Government to consider choosing the most suitable organization plan for the 31st SEA Games.
Reporter