PEKANBARU GEARING UP FOR NATIONAL SPORTS WEEK

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Oct 18 (ANTARA) - As one of the selected venues, Pekanbaru city, Riau province, is gearing up to host 39 branches of sports which would be competed in the 18th National Sports Week (PON) in September 2012.          "We are now preparing the development of Siak III and IV bridges," Pekanbaru Mayor Herman Abdullah said when he explained on Monday preparations being made by Pekanbaru to host 39 branches of sports in the PON event.          The 18th National Sports Week will compete 55 sports events with 555 gold medals, 555 silvers and 729 bronzes at stake.          The mayor has earlier also called on the Riau provincial government  to prepare supportive infrastructure for the national sports events.       "Infrastructures such as roads, airport and bridges must be prepared. The mayoralty government has completed a number of infrastructures under its responsibility such as land clearance for Siak bridge construction. Now it is the task of the provincial government to complete it," the mayor said.          As an example, he cited the Siak IV bridge whose land clearance has been done by the mayoralty and local residents have received compensation. But the provincial government has not yet begun the construction of the bridge.          "The same is true to the case of Siak III. The provincial government has said it was to finish the construction of the bridge at the end of the year but it would be better if it does it earlier," the mayor said.           He said that the two bridges which connected various venues on Jalan Sudirman in Pekanbaru should have been completed and functioned well before the sports events took place.          "The Siak bridges must be given priority. Moreover, Siak I which connects Pekanbaru and Rumbai district is already 33 years old. People fear that it could collapse anytime when it is being used," he said.          In the meantime, a fund of Rp23 billion from the state budget for the maintenance of roads in Pekanbaru city has also been disbursed and is now ready to be used.          "The funds now are ready to be used," Head of Pekanbaru City's Public Works Service Dedi Gusriadi said on Monday. The funds are mainly earmarked for the construction of infrastructure, particular infrastructure in the suburbs. About 70 percent of the funds are for infrastructure in the suburbs and 30 percent for infrastructure inside the city.           In order to accelerate the implementation of the project the public works service will call tenders for the projects this month. "We will announce the winners of the tender in the third week of this month," Dedi said.           He said that his side was optimistic that the project would be completed in the coming three months because the roads were only to be given hot-mixed overlays or to be expanded.          The regional government of Pekanbaru city also planned to turn urban roads into a "green belt" with shadowy trees. "We have set ourselves a target of having planted 10,000 trees at the end of this year," the city mayor said.          The trees are being planted in several sections of protocol roads which so far were still less green such as those on Jalan Juanda, Jalan Riau and Jalan Subrantas.          A man-made lake as the venue for the water ski event is also being prepared with funds taken from the Riau 2010 revised budget (APBD).  "We have set aside a fund for its construction from the APBD," Mayor Herman said.          Small-and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are now being prepared to welcome the PON. They are directed to produce souvenirs. They are expected to provide handicraft products and meet the need for souvenirs during the national sports events.          "We hope that the souvenir market during the PON event would not be taken over by traders from outside Riau province. Therefore, local SMEs should be prepared from now on to sell their products during the PON," the mayor said.          For this purpose, the provincial government has began taking stocks of the number of SMEs in Riau province which was estimated at 470.585 units.          "The Small-and Medium Sized-Businesses (UKM) Service of Riau through its districts/cities offices has begun surveying SMEs which are able to produce special  souvenirs  of Riu origin for the PON 2012," Chief of Riau's UKM service for infrastructure and facilities affairs Irianto said.          There are several districts such as Bengkalis, Kuansing and Kampar have been directly assigned to produce souvenirs for the sports events in 2012.          "The assignment of several districts in certain areas is based on the conditions of their locations which meet the requirements for sports events," Irianto said.          However, all districts are asked to collect data through their cooperatives on the type of their handicraft products and special foods that could be use souvenirs.  "This small businesses will be registered at the PON committee and be asked to select and the kinds of souvenirs for the PON," Irianto said.***4*** (T.A014/H-NG/f001) 18-10-2010 13:31