Youth and Sports Minister Erick Thohir stated that the budget available at his ministry to support the Indonesian contingent for the 2026 Asian Games currently reaches Rp61 billion.
"With the sincerity of all the deputies present, I certainly appreciate it. We finally continued to comb through the budget until we finally secured Rp61 billion," said Erick Thohir at a working meeting of Commission X of the Indonesian House of Representatives.
Erick explained that the budget increase efforts were carried out in stages through a comprehensive evaluation of various expenditure items within his ministry.
According to him, this step was taken to ensure that the primary needs related to the preparation and departure of Indonesian athletes for the 2026 Asian Games could still be met amidst fiscal constraints.
He stated that when he took office as Minister of Youth and Sports in September 2025, the available budget to support Indonesia's participation in the 2026 Asian Games was still very minimal, at around Rp3 billion. This amount was deemed far from sufficient to cover the athlete preparation needs, the national training camp, and the contingent's accommodation and operational costs during the event.
Therefore, Erick instructed all ministerial levels to conduct a rigorous budget review, prioritizing priority programs. Several expenditures deemed non-urgent were reduced or postponed so that funds could be allocated to developing high-performance sports and preparing athletes for Asia's largest multi-sport event.
