The Olympic Council of Asia has decided to establish a regional sub-office in each of the five zones – but the headquarters will remain in Kuwait for the foreseeable future.
The OCA Executive board received an update report and explanation about the situation in detail at the EB meeting in the Royal Lotus Hotel and Convention Centre in Danang on Saturday morning .
The sub-offices will be in Bangkok, Thailand, for the South East Asia zone; Almaty, Kazakhstan (Central Asia); Delhi, India (South Asia);and Nansha, China (East Asia, although some technical issues are still to be addressed); and Kuwait (West Asia).
In addition, the OCA will have an office in the Olympic city of Lausanne, Switzerland, giving them six offices in total.
"We thank the countries who really believe in the role of the OCA to serve and help the Olympic movement of Asia and the youth of Asia, since 1951," said the OCA’s Director General, Husain Al Musallam.
"We are committed to not only continuing with our services but to improve them further."
"We hope for the government to finalise what is the direction," added Mr Al Musallam.
"Kuwait Government terminated The diplomatic agreement since last year Nov 2015 , and we are looking forward to finalising all the related issues officially with them. But now, with these five offices, plus Lausanne, the OCA and the Asian Games is well protected."
*· The 35th OCA General Assembly will be held on Sunday, September 25, on the sidelines of the OCA’s 5th Asian Beach Games.
The General Assembly will confirm the host of the OCA’s 20th edition of the Asian Games: Nagoya city and Aichi prefecture in Japan 2026 .This will follow the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang, Indonesia, in 2018, and the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in 2022.
"To ensure the continuity and stability and to develop the Asian Games and Asian athletes, the OCA has finalised the calendar to 2026 so they are clear for the next 10 years," said Mr Al Musallam.
"This provides a really good environment for the National Olympic Committees and the athletes to set their target and plan to reach their goals."
*· The OCA also praised the work of the Chairman of the OCA Information and Statistics Committee, Mongolia Olympic Committee President Zagdsuren Demchigjav, who produced a report on Asia’s performance at the Rio Olympics.
He reported that Asian National Olympic Committees won one more gold medal than at London 2012, it was still short of Beijing 2008 and Athens 2004. The 68 gold medals represented 22.15 per cent of the gold medals available at Rio 2016. He also broke down the 28 sports into high level, mid level and low level regarding the competitiveness of Asian athletes.
"We are very happy about the technical details from the Information and Statistics Committee which show the good points and the negative points of all Asian athletes at the Rio Olympic Games," said Mr Al Musallam.
*· The OCA will amend its constitution to allow a maximum of two athletes from each National Olympic Committee to enter individual sports. This decision has been made to reduce the participants at the Asian Games, which now involve 15,000 athletes and officials from the 45 countries and regions, 4,000 technical staff, 8,000 media and 30,000 volunteers and workforce, meaning some 60,000 people are involved every day of the Games.
*· The OCA Director General also said that the 5th Asian Beach Games, which run from September 24 to October 3 with 3,238 athletes and officials, will help host city Danang develop a culture of tourism. "It is a very historic city but was a theatre of war with the French and the United States. We support to make this city a name for sport and have a positive impact on tourism and culture. The OCA believes this will be the positive legacy of the Asian Beach Games, and we are very happy with what the organising committee has done. I also wish the best of luck for the 2,200 athletes. We thank all the Asian and International Sport Federations of the 14 sports and 22 disciplines for their support of these Games."
*· The OCA has received a request from Australia to join the 8th Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, in February 2017, as the Oceania confederation does not organise a winter games. The OCA welcomes all Oceania confederations to take part, in individual sports only and with no medals available for countries and regions outside Asia, and awaits the response of the organising committee in Sapporo. "The Asian Winter Games have become a very high level competition with over 30 National Olympic Committees taking part. Oceania is a neighbouring confederation for Asia and we welcome not only Australia but all Oceania to take the opportunity to enter for the first time, as a guest but with no medals. We will evaluate the situation after that."
*· The OCA signed contracts with SsangYong as the IT provider for the 2018 Asian Games and with Asia Sports Media for the 2018 and 2022 Asian Games. The OCA also signed contracts with Beijing Kunpeng DE Xiang New Materials Technology Co Ltd for sports equipment and with Lightlink LED screens of Shenzhen.
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