The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) wishes to host the Asian Youth Games in 2017, in Hambanthota, which will be converted to a ‘Sports City’. This was revealed at the weekly cabinet meeting which was held last Thursday.
At Thursday’s cabinet meeting, the ministers have approved a cabinet memorandum which was submitted by the Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage.
The memorandum comes to light with less discussions being held with the country’s sporting bodies and authorities in hosting such a mega event in the country.
However, Minister Aluthgamage had reportedly shared with his colleagues in the ruling party, that the Asian Olympic Committee had accepted the move and officially agreed the Asian Youth Sports Festival 2017 could be held in Sri Lanka.
He had also stressed that the event would be an initiative in support of ‘Mahinda Chinthana Idiri Dekma’ (Future vision of President Mahinda), which vowed to position Sri Lanka as an international destination for Sports festivals.
According to Minister Aluthgamage, Rs. 15 Billion is required to uplift the infrastructure such as Communications, Lodging, Electricity, Road, Water and other needs in Hambanthota. The minister claims that Hambanthota town is undergoing many development programmes and said that the Mattala airport will also be operational when the Asian Youth Games are held.
According to the Minister, over 5000 sportspersons and officials are expected to visit Sri Lanka for the festival. However, the memorandum issued by the minister says, the first ever Asian Youth Games which was held in Singapore in 2009 had attracted 1321 athletes who had taken part in 90 events.
The second edition of the Asian Youth Games will be kicked off in August 2013 in Nanjing, China. 45 Asian countries have confirmed their participation for the event and they will be taking part in 118 events.
The GOSL had passed the memorandum in spending Rs. 15 Billion to host 2017 Asian Youth Games in Hambanthota, when they lost the bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2018. The GOSL had put forward Hambanthota as the host city and was competing with Australia’s Gold Coast.
The campaign for the 2018 Commonwealth Games was estimated at Rs. 265 billion (at 2011 prices), according to Sri Lanka’s bid document presented to the organisers of the Games in Kuala Lumpur. Sources also said, a delegation of 160 ‘officials’ had been in St. Kitts island for the bid representing Sri Lanka’s Hambanthota while only 20 officials had represented Australia’s Gold Coast!
