Papua- The Papua Provincial Government through the Papua Sports and Youth Service continues to strive to make Papua worthy of being a sports province.
This is to confirm President Joko Widodo’s statement that he wants Papua to be named a sports province because it has successfully held the XX National Sports Week (PON) in 2021.
Head of the Papua Province Regional Technical Implementation Unit (UPTD), Sonya Monim, said that currently the government has approved Papua as a sports province through an academic study conducted by the Faculty of Sports Sciences, Cenderawasih University.
“We already had a kickoff in Jayapura and Timika, at that time there was no new autonomous region division, in 2022 the government launched Papua as a sports province in Jakarta, after that it was interrupted,” said Sonya.
He explained that after that, he held a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) in Jakarta with the Ministry of Youth and Sports in the hope that there would be a legal product to further strengthen Papua as a sports province.
“We are advised to write a letter of application to the President through the Ministry of State Secretariat to designate Papua as a sports province and provide recommendations for conducting a study,” he said.
After that, it was explained that on February 26 2024, a second cross-ministerial/institutional FGD was held again with the Papua Provincial Government to review the studies made by Uncen scientists to produce legal products.
However, the central government directed the creation of Regional Sports Designs derived from the Grand National Sports Design (DBON).
“Actually, we hope for a presidential regulation, but it is more directed at regional sports designs which we will include in special points related to sports provinces, a derivative of DBON. “Currently it is still in the process of being studied by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and we, the government, will hold a meeting regarding regional sports design plans before the presidential decree is issued,” he concluded.
