The Philippines may have reached the 75 percent mark in its efforts to prepare for the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
Chris Chan, secretary general of the Singapore National Olympic Committee, said this after attending the second Chefs de Mission meeting among member countries yesterday at the Hilton Hotel in Pasay City.
“That's a good figure, considering that there's still five months to go,” said Chan, who represented Singapore CDM Juliana Seow.
Chan, alongside other heads of delegations, is set to visit the various venues of the Games on Friday and report back to the Singapore NOC on the preparedness of the country to host the biennial meet.
He believes that the country's hosting this time is quite challenging as there are 56 sports disciplines on tap.
“The last time Philippines hosted in 2005, the Philippines had 40 sports. That's quite a big figure. This time, 56. That's quite a challenging figure,” added Chan.
Representatives from 11 member nations first attended a two-and-half hour meeting among CDMs and their representatives, before going into one-on-one meetings with the different departments of the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee.
And many CDMs believe that the issues they have raised and asked for solutions are quite manageable.
Among the CDMs who attended were Brunei NOC vice president Haji Mohd Haji Hamdani, Cambodia NOC's Director of International Relations Nhan Sokvisal, Timor Leste's Vicente da Silva and Indonesia's Harrry Warganegara.
Also with them were Laos NOC Deputy Secretary General Senphone Phonamath, Senator Datuk Megat Omardin of the Olympic Council of Malaysia and Myanmar's Mya Than, Htike.
Also in attendance were Thailand's Thana Chaiprasit and Vietnam's Tran Duc Phan and Philippine Sports Commission chairman William Ramirez.
Chan believes that the preparations are on track since PHISGOC Chief Operating Officer Ramon Suzara has been in touch with many of them.
“We are on track. We just need to do a lot of work, and it's not easy for us. We just need to do our work double time, even triple time,” said Suzara.
Some 44 venues spread out in Clark, Manila, Tagaytay, Laguna and Subic, will hold events when the Games are held from November 30 to December 10.