The Olympic Solidarity (OS) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) Regional Forum for West, Central and South Asian National Olympic Committees is all set to commence today (Wednesday, May 7).
Being under the umbrella of the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic Solidarity has chosen the Bahrain in April 2013 to host the event this year, to be attended by a total of 90 officials from 26 National Olympic Committees from the three zones.
The opening session is scheduled to begin at 9am and will be taking place at the Regency Hotel’s Riffa Ballroom in Manama.
It will be inaugurated by Supreme Council for Youth and Sports general secretary, Bahrain Olympic Committee vice-president and Asian Football Confederation president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa.
According to OCA Asian Games Director Haider Farman, who arrived in Bahrain yesterday (Tuesday, May 6) the two-day event will focus on the Incheon Asian Games Pre-Delegation Registration Meetings (DRM) and good governance of the National Olympic Committees.
Farman added that the OCA would be supervising the forum in accordance with its main themes. Today’s opening session will feature the Olympic Solidarity programme provided by the International Olympic Committee and presented by Olympic Solidarity delegates from Switzerland.
”Their main topic will be National Olympic Committees’ good governance. This will be one of our main themes and we want to raise the awareness and importance of what good governance could bring to National Olympic Committees,” said Farman.
Following today’s sessions, the organizing committee will be taking the delegations members on a visit to the Bahrain National Museum at 6pm. It will be followed by a gala dinner for all the participants.
On the second and last day of discussions, three Games organising committees will be presenting detailed information on three major Games to be held in 2014.
The first of the three will be the Second Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, in August, the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, Korea, in September-October, and the Fourth Asian Beach Games in Phuket, Thailand, in November.
OCA will use this platform to serve as a Pre-DRM for all the NOCs and the Incheon Asian Games Organising Committee. It will help the Incheon Asian Games Organising Committee to evaluate the scale of the Games and decide proper logistical arrangements at an early stage.
