Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi is speeding up all-roundpreparations for the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) as theevent is only two and a half months away.

The Games is scheduled to take place in Hanoi and some nearbylocalities from May 12 to 23. The capital city will provide 15 venues for 18sports.

The venues are all existing facilities, including12 managed by the district-level People’s Committees and five by the municipalDepartment of Culture and Sports. Upgrades to most of the venues are being carried outon schedule.

From February 7 to 10, the Hanoi People’s Committee and theMinistry of Culture, Sports and Tourism sent a team to examine the 20competition and training sites. They demanded prompt moves to complete theupgrades by March 15 to gear up for the inspection by the Southeast Asian GamesFederation on March 18 - 19.

Over the past years, the city’s administration has issued short-and long-term training plans to supply the best coaches and athletes for the nationalteams at the 31st SEA Games.

As of February 2022, Hanoi contributed 39 of the 134 coachesand 163 of the 588 athletes called in for the national teams of 22 sports.

It is striving to contribute to at least 30 percent of theVietnamese officials, coaches, athletes, and referees, along with over 30 percentof the country’s gold medals, at the coming regional sports event.

Besides, the capital city has been working with the Ministryof Culture, Sports and Tourism to arrange the opening and closing ceremonies aswell as others activities serving the Games.

It has also been striving to ensure logistics, transport,tourism, healthcare, and ICT services; coordinating with the ministries of publicsecurity and transport to guarantee security, safety, and smooth traffic forsports teams; decorating streets; and encouraging local residents to helppromote Hanoi as an attractive, safe, and friendly destination.

The 31st SEA Games, themed “For a stronger South East Asia”, will run in Hanoi and 11 neighbouring localities.It will feature 40 sports with 526 events and expect to attract around 10,000participants.

At the 30th SEA Games in 2019, Vietnam finishedsecond in the overall medal tally, with 98 golds, 85 silvers and 105 bronzes, followinghosts the Philippines./.