Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh has been elected as President of the Vietnam Olympic Committee (VOC) in the next five-year term.

Participants to the fourth VOC National Congress, held in Hanoi on Sept. 23, elected Tran Van Manh, Chief of the third VOC’s Office, as its Secretary General.

In the new term from 2012-2016, the VOC will continue to prepare sportsmen for the 2013 and 2015 SEA Games, ASIAD 2014 and the 2016 Olympic Games.

The committee will try to win the bid for Vietnam’s host of the 18th ASIAD in 2019.

In the previous tenure, the VOC successfully organised the third Asian Indoor Games and won the bid for hosting the Asian Beach Games 2016.

Vietnam continued to maintain its third position in Southeast Asia’s sport scene over the past five years. However, it failed to make any advance on the continent and global playgrounds due to a lack of long-term plans. The Vietnamese squad bagged only one gold medal at ASIAD 16 and no medals at the 2012 Olympic Games.-VNA