Indonesia’s National Olympic Committee has urged its government to extend its full support to a 2032 Olympic bid from Capital Jakarta.
The renewed push to pursue the Games comes after Qatar last week announced it would enter the race joining other campaigns from Brisbane in Australia, India, China and Germany. A joint bid from North and South Korea seems to have fizzled along with those nations’ diplomatic collapse.
“Qatar wrote to the IOC [International Olympic Committee] stating its intention to join the bidding process last week,” Indonesian NOC President Raja Sapta Oktohari wrote in a statement Wednesday according to the Jakarta Post.
“More countries have conveyed their seriousness to host the 2032 Olympics, so should we.”
Earlier this year bid officials from Jakarta, along with those in Brisbane announced that preparations would be put on hold while governments focus on dealing with the global coronavirus pandemic. Southeast Queensland’s Brisbane had been the clear front runner with plans to submit its bid ahead of the now-cancelled Tokyo 2020 Olympic that were due to open in July.
There is no set timeline for the process to choose the 2032 Olympic host city but the IOC is in no hurry as it deals with the reorganization of Tokyo Games, and keeping the Beijing 2022 Winter Games on track.
But an optimistic Oktohari believes now is the time to ramp up efforts in order to compete against the growing field of contenders.
“The NOC needs major support from the government. All this time, we have yet to take significant steps to realize [our ambition] to host the event,” Raja said.
“We have to convince the world that our success in hosting the 2018 Asian Games and Asian Para Games is proof of Indonesia’s ability to host.”
