The Sports Affairs Administration (SAA) is not interested in replacing Vietnam as host of the 2019 Asian Games because there are other international sports events it is interested in.
Vietnam opted out from hosting the Games last week amid concerns that the cost of the event would greatly exceed the amount that the country had budgeted for it.
Though the Vietnamese Ministry of Sports had budgeted US$150 million for the Games, economists estimated the cost could be five times higher and potentially top US$1 billion.
“We have to follow a set of government procedures if we want to host certain international games,” SAA Director-General Ho Jow-fei (何卓飛) said.
Taipei is set to host the Summer Universiade in 2017, while Greater Taichung has planned to bid for the 2019 East Asian Youth Games — which were known previously as the East Asian Games, Ho said.
New Taipei City is bidding to host the 2023 Asian Games, he added.
The Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee said that hosting a sports event such as the Asian Games requires the administration and the host city to file a joint application.
No Taiwanese city has filed such an application.
Vietnam is not the first country to have pulled out of hosting the Asian Games. The 1970 Games were supposed to be held in Seoul, but South Korea declined due to financial considerations and a military threat from North Korea.
Thailand, which hosted the previous Games in 1966, stepped in to replace Seoul.
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