52nd OCA Executive Board Meeting 03-04-2008

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) held its 52nd Executive Board meeting on 3 April 2008 in Bangkok Thailand, presided by President of OCA Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah. Thailand's newly appointed Minister of Tourism and Sports H.E. Mr. Weerasak Kowsurat, accompanied by President of the Thailand Olympic Committee Genl. Yuthasak Sasiprapha were also present at the opening of the meeting.  They both extended their welcome as the host of this productive meeting and looked forward to working closely with OCA and its members in the future.

The OCA President expressed the delight that Asia will host the 1st Youth Olympic Games in 2010 in Singapore. Following proposal made by Singapore, the Executive Board approved the proposal of an Asian Youth Games with the aim to support this new initiative, and for the inaugural edition of the Asian Youth Games to be held in Singapore in June/July 2009. In addition to the recently approved inclusion of an Asian Martial Arts Games, the Asian Games program will now be made up of six events, namely the Asian Games, Asian Winter Games, Asian Indoor Games, Asian Beach Games, Asian Martial Arts Games, and Asian Youth Games.  

Among the different issues discussed, during the OCA meeting, representatives from the organizing committees of the upcoming Asian Games events presented their progress reports to the Executive Board, including the upcoming October-held "Bali 2008, 1st Asian Beach Games," the "Guangzhou 2010, 16th Asian Games," the "Vietnam 2009, 3rd Asian Indoor Games," the "Almaty 2011, 7th Asian Winter Games," and the "Oman 2010, 2nd Asian Beach Games", the "Incheon 2014, 17th Asian Games" While the first OCA Congress was also discussed of which is planned for March 2009 during the inauguration of the new OCA Headquarters in Kuwait.

The Board during the course of discussion also approved "Le Yangyang" as the mascot of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and also the inclusion of Women's Cricket in the sports programme of the games.

The Board also unanimously expressed its full support and cooperation to Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee (BOGOC) towards the conduct of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August 2008