VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is scheduled to attend the opening ceremony of the World Student Sports Festival, or FISU Universiade in Chengdu, China, Friday.

The visit was part of the series of the second-day working visits to the country.

As quoted from the official statement from the Press Bureau of the Presidential Secretariat, the head of state is scheduled to start the second day of activities with an agenda meeting with several Chinese businessmen at the Shangri-La Hotel in Chengdu.

Meanwhile, First Lady Iriana Joko Widodo is scheduled to visit a panda breeding site at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

In the afternoon, the President and the First Lady are scheduled to meet an invitation to a luncheon from Chinese President Xi Jinping and Madam Peng Liyuan that is planned to be attended by several leaders from other countries.

President Jokowi is then scheduled to meet student athletes, who are part of the Indonesian contingent for the Chengdu Universiade.

In the evening, President Jokowi and the First Lady will attend the opening ceremony of the Chengdu Universiade at the Dong'an Lake Sports Stadium before ending their working visit in China and returning to Jakarta.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian contingent is strengthened by 51 student athletes from 31 tertiary educational institutions to compete at the Chengdu Universiade on July 25-August 9, 2023.

Indonesia took part in eight of the 31 sports contested at the event, including athletics, badminton, rowing, judo, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, and wushu.

The Universiade is a biannual student-level summer Olympics organized by the International Student Sports Federation (FISU).

Chengdu was actually the host for the 2021 Universiade that had to be deferred to 2022 due to the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, on May 6, 2022, FISU again issued a postponement of the Universiade Chengdu schedule since the COVID-19 pandemic situation at that time had worsened again.

This year's Universiade Chengdu replaces a similar edition for 2023 that was originally held in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Yekaterinburg's hosting rights were revoked as a sanction for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Antaranews)