"Not a Sign of Ministry of Culture's Indifference or Lack of Consideration"...Chungcheong Region's Asian Games Bid 'Failed'

The heads of four local governments in the Chungcheong region, who agreed to jointly host the 2030 Summer Asian Games, are taking a commemorative photo after requesting government-level support from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on February 11 last year. (From left) Lee Chun-hee, Mayor of Sejong; Lee Si-jong, Governor of Chungbuk Province; Do Jong-hwan, then Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Na So-yeol, Deputy Governor for Political Affairs of Chungnam Province; Heo Tae-jeong, Mayor of Daejeon. Source=Yonhap News

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The bid by local governments in the Chungcheong region to host the Asian Games has failed. According to the Chungcheong local governments, the background of the failed bid was that they could not even obtain approval from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism due to the tight revised document submission schedule.

In particular, these local governments expressed regret, hoping that the latter reason was not due to government agencies' indifference and lack of consideration toward the Chungcheong region.

On the 23rd, the heads of four local governments?Daejeon, Sejong, Chungnam, and Chungbuk?announced the failure of the joint bid to host the 2030 Summer Asian Games in the Chungcheong region through a joint statement titled "A Message to 5.6 Million Chungcheong Residents."

In the joint statement, the Chungcheong local government heads said, "The hope of the Chungcheong people, who aimed to expand the most underdeveloped sports infrastructure in the country through hosting the Asian Games, has been dashed," and added, "We humbly apologize to all Chungcheong residents who had high expectations."

So far, the four cities and provinces in the Chungcheong region have continued efforts to jointly host the Asian Games. First, in February last year, they signed a joint hosting agreement and pledged to hold a "low-cost, high-efficiency" event by maximizing the use of existing sports infrastructure if they jointly hosted the Asian Games.

The strategy was to increase efficiency in hosting and conducting the event by sharing the budget required for hosting the Asian Games. They also devoted efforts to bid preparation in line with the precedent of selecting the Asian Games host city eight years before the event's opening (expected in 2022).

However, earlier this year, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) advanced the bid application deadline to the 22nd of this month, which made the Chungcheong region's Asian Games bid preparations urgent. Nevertheless, the four cities and provinces in Chungcheong completed the basic plan and preliminary feasibility study and succeeded in being selected as the domestic candidate city at the Korea Sports Council General Assembly on the 10th.

The problem arose when the Asian Games hosting approval application submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism three days after being selected as a candidate city was rejected.

At that time, the Ministry requested document supplementation. In response, the Chungcheong local governments submitted partially supplemented materials under the tight schedule and conveyed plans to supplement the incomplete parts later. However, as the Ministry requested a supplementary plan again, the Chungcheong local governments explained that they eventually missed the submission deadline for the letter of intent to host the Asian Games (the 22nd).

Regarding this, the Chungcheong local governments pointed out, "Due to the Ministry's request for document supplementation, we could not even submit the letter of intent to the OCA, and the Asian Games bid was frustrated," and added, "We hope that the series of processes and the final failure of the bid are not due to the Ministry's indifference and lack of consideration."

They also emphasized, "The Chungcheong region's desire to host international events has not yet faded," and stated, "We will continue consultations with the government to host the 2027 Universiade and the 2034 Asian Games in the Chungcheong region."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.