Not only free tickets, Cambodia is also responsible for accommodation for the 2023 SEA Games participants

The Cambodian government announced on April 18 that it will cover all expenses for all participating countries in the 2023 SEA Games. This includes transportation, accommodation and meals.

Prime Minister Hun Sen made the decision just months after announcing that admission to all events would be free for everyone. He announced that the broadcast rights to the event would also be free.

This made Cambodia the first host in the history of the SEA Games to bear all the expenses of the participating countries.

And this is despite the fact that the country has one of the lowest GDPs in Southeast Asia, ahead only of Laos, Timor Leste and Brunei.

“We are doing this so that other countries can understand the sincerity of the Khmer people,” Hun Sen said in his speech in Phnom Penh on Monday, as quoted by the Khmer Times.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance announced in January that these steps could bring the total cost of hosting the 2023 SEA Games to $200 million.

The cost of building the new Morodok Techo National Sports Complex in Phnom Penh will be $160 million of that total. When finished, Morodok Techo Stadium will be the second largest in Southeast Asia, after Malaysia’s Bukit Jalil. It is almost double the size of Vietnam’s My Dinh Stadium.

According to the World Bank, Cambodia’s GDP in 2021 is $27 billion. That means their budget for the 32nd SEA Games accounts for 0.74% of that figure. This ratio is 53 times higher than Vietnam, which spent $51 million to host the SEA Games 31 years ago, equivalent to 0.014% of their GDP.

Cambodia is willing to spend big to host the 2023 SEA Games because it wants to build a proper national sports complex. In June 2018, the general secretary of the Cambodian National Olympic Committee Vath Chamroeun emphasized the importance of the new Morodok Techo National Sports Complex. He said the construction of the project was not only good for the development of sports in Cambodia, but could also help attract foreign tourists to Cambodia.

Another reason for the huge spending is that Cambodia has a major partner in the SEA Games venture – China.

In a statement earlier this week, PM Hun Sen said: “We don’t need any money from ticket sales or advertising in Cambodia. What we need right now is for the world to know about Cambodia.”