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President SBY Opened The Asian Beach Games 2008

Sanur - Opening ceremony of Asian Beach Games finally was opened by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) who attended the ceremony with Madam Ani Yudhoyono. This ceremony was also crowded by some popular singers.

Asian Beach Games (ABG) 2008 was just opened by opening speech by President SBY last night. Some performances were also exhibited during the opening ceremony, including the performance of Asian singers who have been go international.

President SBY and Madam Ani Yudhoyono arrived at location of ABG opening in the complex of Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) Bali, Saturday (October 18, 2008) at 8 PM Bali time.


SBY wore Bali batik suit in dark blue color, with Balinese traditional hat in dark red color. While Madam Ani wore Balinese traditional suit in light green color, with Balinese traditional hair knot.

Along with President SBY, there are Governor of Bali I Made Mangku Pastika and some ministers from Kabinet Indonesia Bersatu (United Indonesian Cabinet) like Minister of The Public Prosperity Coordinator Aburizal Bakrie, Minister o Youth and Sports Adhyaksa Dault, Minister of Communication and Informatics M Nuh and also Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik. Governor of DKI Jakarta Fauzi Bowo was also seen in the ceremony.

When SBY arrived, the anthem of Indonesia Raya filled the air, followed by the performance of Kecak Dance.

“Indonesia was appointed as the first country who runs Asian Beach Games by Olympic Committee of Asia on 9 September 2005. Since then the preparation was began,” said Minister of Public Prosperity Coordinator Aburizal Bakrie in his speech.

This event will run for 9 days from 18 until 26 October 2008. In this event, there will be some games competition held like beach soccer, beach volley ball, beach sepak takraw and also 2 sports expedition.

This event was followed by 45 Asian countries, with totally 3000 atheletes will compete.

This event is estimated will spend 300 billion rupiah or more. There was performance of popular singer Reza Artamevia in the opening ceremony who sing the theme song of ABG “Inspire The World” created by Dwiki Dharmawan. There was also performance of 3 Asian famous singers: Andre Hehanusa (Indonesia), Christian Bautista (Philippines), and Mark Lazaro (India).

(translated from: http://www.detiksport.com/read/2008/10/18/203134/1022221/82/sby-buka-asian-beach-games-2008