New Ireland expresses interest to host Games

THE New Ireland government has expressed its interest in hosting the next PNG Games in 2023 with the provincial executive council backing the bid for Kavieng after the Mendi Games this year.
Kavieng town mayor and New Ireland’s chairman for youth and sports Sikal Kelep said the current development in sport and its infrastructure was significant and would be further boosted if the Kavieng were to become the new hosts.
“We’re looking forward to hosting the PNG Games hopefully sometime in the future after the games in Southern Highlands,” he said.
“The bidding process is on and we have a bid in place to get the games hosted in our province.
“We have a beautiful province and we have sporting facilities coming up that can support our bid with a soon to be completed stadium and soccer field to come on board.
“We are already in the process of getting an indoor gymnasium up so these are some things that we hope can get us a place for our bid,” he said.
Kelep said sporting activities in 2020 targeting social problems in Kavieng and its surrounding communities proved successful with the involvement of the youths and the provincial government.
“Developing sports to help the province in keeping our social issues in check is something that we’re focusing on at the moment and we’ve had a few initiatives from our local wards coming in to organise games for the youths during the year and the festive season.
“The impact of these initiatives saw a lot of illicit activities being brought to a minimum at the time so once we have approved policies for our framework to action what we want to do with sports, this will really help in the social problems we face.”