25th SEA Games complex in Laos 30 percent complete

The Lao SEA Games Organising Committee confirmed yesterday that the new sports complex currently under construction for use in next year's 25 th SEA Games in Vientiane is more than 30 percent complete.

Site manager Kiengkham Phoutchanhthavongsa told Vientiane Times yesterday that the work was going well and everything would be finished on time.

“Our goal is for 50 percent of the work to be done by the end of May. The deadline for completion is May next year,” Mr Kiengkham said.

At present more than 800 Chinese construction workers are labouring at the site and another 1,500 will start work before the end of the year.

“The workers are arriving in groups of 40 or 50 as the work intensifies,” Mr Kiengkham explained.

Construction of the sports complex began on October 28, 2007, under contract to the China Yunnan Construction Engineering Group Corporation. The cost of construction is more than US$80 million and has been arranged through a joint cooperation project between the Lao government and the China Development Bank.

The complex is located in Dongsanghin village (km 16), in Xaythany district.

An official from the Lao National Sports Committee announced that construction of another facility, the Lao National Sports Training Centre, is also underway. The centre will be used by Lao athletes ahead of the games, and is now estimated to be 13 percent complete. The committee hopes it will be ready by November.

The centre is being built on a 11-hectare site in Sikeud village, Naxaithong district, at a cost of more than 35 billion kip (US$4 million) financed by grant aid from the government of Vietnam.

It will comprise an office, sleeping quarters for athletes, a running track and playing field, a football pitch, a gymnasium and other facilities for sporting events. The centre will enable up to 200 athletes to train there every day.

The committee believe that athletes will use this centre to great advantage and that it will help them to achieve the best possible results when they compete in the SEA Games.

Meanwhile, the upgrading of other facilities, including indoor and football stadiums to be used for competition and training, is also in progress.