KUCHING: The Sarawak Sports Council will be the leading agency to handle the venues and logistics for the International Paralympic Council (IPC) event which will be held here in July 2019.
According to its CEO, Dr Ong Kong Swee, the event calls for the renovation of a number of facilities to accommodate the needs and specifications of the IPC.
He said during the last two visits here, the IPC had given us the list of requirements to be met and fortunately the Sarawak state government approved a budget to carry out all the necessary renovations to meet up to the required international standards.”
First Admiral Dato’ Subramaniam Raman Nair, a member of the organising committee and chief operations officer (technical) for the event and also the vice-president of the Paralympics Council of Malaysia, said logistics will also be a challenge to work out.
“The lack of connectivity compounded by the fact that these are mostly disabled athletes will be a tough one to handle. We will be working closely with all airlines and also the Royal Malaysian Airforce in terms of logistics and
coordination.”
“Western countries have monopolised the event and when Japan won the rights to host the Olympics in 2020, our bid then made sense to the fraternity as it will act as the precursor to the bigger Paralympics in 2020,” he said
Another point to consider was the medical facilities and support that is available here. The committee had impressed upon the IPC the readily available facilities and was won over quickly, especially on the second visit here prior to the event in Mexico last year.
Ong said between the venue demands and the needs of the international press corps,
SSC is confident of meeting the requirements in time for the event in July.
In terms of corporate participation, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said his ministry will reach out to the corporate world be it local and international to come forward and participate as part of their CSR activity.
“The help of the private sector not just as sponsors but in other aspects as well will help make this event as successful as can be.”
