The 42nd OCA General Assembly was held on Saturday, 8th July 2023, at the Bangkok Convention Centre, Bangkok, Thailand.
The said General Assembly kicked-off with a welcome address by the Acting President of the OCA, H.E. Raja Randhir Singh OLY. The Minister of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, H.E. Mr. Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, was given the honour to address the General Assembly on behalf of the Thai Government.
The OCM was officially represented by 3 delegates as follows:
- Tan Sri Dato’ Sri (Dr.) Mohamad Norza Zakaria (President)
- Dato’ Chong Kim Fatt (Vice President)
- Dato’ Mohd Nazifuddin (Secretary General)
Mr. Fong Wan Hor, the General Manager of OCM, was also present at the General Assembly as an observer.
The highlight of the said General Assembly was the election of the position of OCA President and 5 OCA Vice Presidents for each zone for the quadrennial period of 2023-2027.
H.E. Sheikh Talal Fahad Al-Ahamd Al-Sabah of Kuwait was elected as the new OCA President with a simple majority of 24-20.
The 5 prominent sports personnels who were elected to the position of OCA Vice Presidents by zones are as follows:
- Vice President (East Asia) – Mr. Timothy Fok (Hong Kong)
- Vice President (Southeast Asia) – Dato’ Seri Chaiyapak Siriwat (Thailand)
- Vice President (Central Asia) – Mr. Timur Kulibayev (Kazakhstan)
- Vice President (South Asia) – Lt. Gen. Seyed Arif Hasan (Pakistan)
- Vice President (West Asia) – Dr. Thani Abdulrahman Al Kuwari (Qatar)
The Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) presented its proposal to host the 9th Asian Winter Games in 2025 in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China, which was accepted and approved by the OCA General Assembly.
The Organizing Committees of the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 and 6th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games Bangkok-Chonburi 2021 also presented their progress reports respectively.
In addition, the Organizing Committee of the 6th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games tabled their proposal to postpone the Games, which was originally scheduled from “17th to 26th November 2023” to “24th February 2024 to 6th March 2024”. The proposal was accepted and approved by the OCA General Assembly.
The Olympic Solidarity updates were jointly presented by Mr. James Macleod (Director of NOC Relations & Olympic Solidarity), Mr. Jérôme Poivey (Associate Director of NOC Relations, Institutional Relations & Governance) and Mr. Olivier Niamkey (Associate Director of Olympic Solidarity).
The General Assembly also approved for the 43rd OCA General Assembly to be held during the period of the 6th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games in Bangkok in 2024.
The General Assembly in principle agreed for the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Asian Games under the category of ‘Independent Athletes’. This decision will be subjected to further consultation with the Russian Olympic Committee, Belarus Olympic Committee, the International Federations (IFs) and the Asian Federations (AFs) concerned as well as the IOC.