APC hopes for better colloboration in Asia

The Asian Paralympic Committee (APC) is still hoping for more colloboration with Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) in the near future.
Datuk Zainal Abu Zahrin (picture), President of Malaysian Paralympic Council (MPM) feels that, with better colloboration, both parties would benefit in terms of sport as well as sponsorships.
Right now, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has a good working relationship with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Under this colloboration, countries interested in hosting Olympic games, would have to submit a bid for both the summer games as well as the paralimpiad and one organizing committee for both the games.
"We are hoping for the same type of colloboration in Asia. I represented the APC and submitted this proposal during the OCA board meeting in Bali, Indonesia last year. They said they will look into it, but till today we have not receive any reply," said Datuk Zainal.
Datuk Zainal, like many other officials involved in paralympic sport, feels OCA may be reluctant to colloborate mainly due to business reasons.
Probably OCA feels the para games might steal some of the lime light, or worse, some of the sponsorship.
There was some pressure on the 2010 Asian Games host, Guangzhou when the city agreed to host an Asian Para Games, back-to-back with the Asian Games. But things have improved, said Datuk Zainal, and right now the attitude is "you do your games and we do our games".
"We are hoping for a better colloboration in the near future,"added Zainal.
The Guangzhou games would be the first Asian Para Games. Previously, the games were known as the Asia-Pacific Para Games.