’14 Games HOC named

 By GABRIEL LAHOC

THE Morobe provincial government has announced its host organising committee (HOC) for the 2014 PNG Games.

 The committee, comprising 13 residents of Lae, now have a mammoth task in overseeing the 6th Papua New Guinea Games to be the best ever.

After a wide consultation by the provincial executive council (PEC), the committee was appointed on Wednesday, and announced yesterday at the Huon Gulf motel.

The host organising committee comprises Phil Franklin as chairman, former Morobe premier Boyamo Sali as deputy chairman, Vincent Onnevagi (PNG Sports Foundation), Robin Calistus (Lae district administrator), John Peka (Morobe soccer icon), Stanley Komunt (Morobe Mining Joint Venture), Brendan Chan (LNC Foam), Naka Songake (Design Scope), Rita Saulei (ELC PNG), Sinan Bilsel (Lae Yatch Club), Iammo Launa (PNG Games council chairperson), Nane Tomala (provincial sports advisor) and Amos Wallace (Tutumang, PEC).

A bonus for this Morobe HOC is the expertise by Bilsel who was a member of the Sydney 2000 Olympics organising committee and bidding team in Australia and Saulei, who was part of the 1991 South Pacific games hosted by Papua New Guinea.

Announcing the committee, Governor Kelly Naru said all of them could contribute to hosting the games for a second time under the stewardship of Franklin.

He committed K1 million towards the HOC for its operation.

“Each one of you were appointed because of your merit and standing in the community.

“Chairman (Franklin), the Morobe provincial government is right behind you and I wish you all good luck,” Naru said.

Franklin said the HOC had the experience and expertise and pointed out that accommodation and transportation was one of the challenging areas.

“It all comes back to advance planning and success will depend on good planning and its essential to learn from previous games,” Franklin said.

Franklin pointed out that the biannual sporting event next year will be an economic gain for the Lae and the province.