Laos makes plans for 25th SEA Games

The Lao National Sports Committee met at the Prime Minister's Office last Friday to begin organising and planning for the 25 th SEA Games in 2009.
Standing Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the 25 th SEA Games Organising Committee, Mr Somsavat Lengsavad, senior officials from ministries, and presidents of various Lao sports federations also attended.
The committee is supervising the construction of a new football stadium and athlete accommodation, while also determining the best athletes to represent Laos at the games.
Discussions are currently focused around stadium construction, training centres, accommodation, catering, transportation, and tourism.
The committee will send the most talented athletes to train in neighbouring countries to improve their medal chances.
At the 24 th SEA Games in Thailand last year, the Lao team was helped by trainers from Vietnam , China , the Republic of Korea , Japan , Indonesia , Mongolia and Thailand , and showed great improvements.
The 25 th SEA Games will take place in Vientiane and in Savannakhet and Luang Prabang provinces. The opening and closing ceremonies will be held at the new football stadium in Vientiane .
Savannakhet province will upgrade its accommodation, roads and stadium for some of the football events.
Luang Prabang province will host the track and field events, rebuilding its existing stadium.
Vientiane will spend more billions of kip to prepare for the games, building accommodation, improving the city's appearance and expanding the public transport system.
The city is well established to cope with the influx of athletes and visitors who will attend the games. There are 97 hotels and 69 restaurants as well as many places of historic and cultural interest. The city's 60 tourism companies will certainly benefit.
The games will comprise swimming and diving, wrestling, track and field, badminton, rugby, boxing, football, futsal, golf, judo, karatedo, petanque, sepak takraw, billiards and snooker, shooting, Muay Lao, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, boat racing, shuttlecock, wushu, pencak silat, volleyball and beach volleyball events.
"The government decided to host the games because of its importance in the region; it is a great opportunity to improve the skills of our athletes, and it will be good for the economy," Mr Somsavat said.
"Lao athletes have a lot of potential but first we need to find them. If we select the best competitors and managers, we will be successful, perhaps winning more than 25 gold medals."