Construction of SEA Games Village in Myanmar on schedule: Lawrence Wong

SINGAPORE: Construction of the Southeast Asian Games Village in Myanmar is on schedule for completion. Myanmar is hosting the games in December 2013 for the first time.

Giving an update in Parliament, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong said the list of sports to be included in the games is also likely to be confirmed by the end of February.

Nominated MP Nicholas Fang said: "The issue we tend to face with the SEA Games is that the list of sports tends to be decided from country to country, with the inclusion of some interesting choices that may not feature in the Olympic list of sports.

"This has resulted in problems where athletes prepare year by year, or two years by two years. As Singapore moves towards a more professional pathway of sports development, what can we do as a country, as a member of Southeast Asia and of the games, to create greater visibility for athletes preparing for such competitions in the future?"

Mr Wong replied: "Within the SEA Games context, there will always be a few traditional sports that will be included. I think we recognise that, that’s part of the SEA Games spirit.

"When we host the games in 2015, we will maintain our same position —— that we want the games to be of a high—level, and we will want to have, as far as possible, within the SEA Games that we host in 2015, sports that are at the Olympic and Asian Games—level."

—CNA/ac