2018 Asian Games | Indonesian official: All venues to be ready by June

An elevated track for the Jakarta Mass Rapid Transit stands under construction as vehicles travel along a highway

A senior Indonesian minister assigned to supervise the nation’s preparation for the 2018 Asian Games said yesterday that all venues for all sports at the upcoming multi-sport event would be ready by June, or 100 days prior to its start.

“One thing for sure that we have set commitments to make all venues in Jakarta and Palembang done by June,” the Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Human and Cultural Development Puan Maharani, who is the Deputy Chair of the 2018 Asian Games Steering Committee, said in Yogyakarta.

She said that as of now 90 percent of infrastructure and projects to facilitate the Asiad in Jakarta and Palembang have been completed. “Later on they will all be settled, 100 days before the event,” the minister said in her visit in the nation’s rock climbing training center.

Rock climbing is one of the sports to be contested at the upcoming Asian Games, which are slated for August 18 to September 2 in the two Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang.

The host country has set target to seize 16 gold medals in the 18th Asian Games so as to make it among the top ten teams prevailing in the sports event.

Indonesia secured 4 gold, 5 silver and 11 bronze medals in the previous 2014 Incheon Games, placing 17th.

The upcoming Asian Games will be the second for Indonesia, having earlier been held there in 1962. Themed “Energy of Asia,” the event will include over 11,000 athletes from 45 Asian countries and regions.  MDT/Xinhua