SINGAPORE - FIBA Asia President Sheik Saud Al Thani welcomed representatives from the 10 South East Asian basketball federations (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) to Singapore on Friday July 7 for the first-ever workshop to determine key activities for this region over the next three years.

Joined by South East Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) President and FIBA Central Board Member Erick Thohir, FIBA Treasurer Ingo Weiss and FIBA Asia Executive Director Hagop Khajirian, Sheik Saud Al Thani congratulated FIBA for its foresight in opening an office in Singapore to support the development of basketball in this dynamic region.

Thohir said: "These 10 South East Asia countries have a combined population of over 600 million people with a strong interest in sports. Therefore basketball can increase its popularity with FIBA assisting the national federations in this region to have a better structure and deliver high-quality training programs."

Weiss informed the 32 delegates at the workshop that "in 2014, the National Federations (NFs) that make up FIBA voted for a new governance structure focused on bringing FIBA and its Members closer together. FIBA can now structure its operations in a smarter way under the ONE FIBA model. In 2016, the Executive Board of FIBA decided to commit more resources to the Asian zone and open a development office located in Singapore to assist the 10 South East Asian national federations to reach their potential."

With the new governance structure introduced three years ago and the unification of Asia and Oceania for competition purposes, FIBA is extending the operational alliance between these two regions and has appointed David Crocker as its Executive Director for both FIBA in Oceania and FIBA in Singapore.

FIBA Secretary General and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Member Patrick Baumann said of the appointment: "David has a strong basketball development background and has proven himself as an effective sports executive. FIBA now requires him to really accelerate the growth of basketball across the 32 National Federations in Oceania and South East Asia he is responsible for."

Crocker said: "The potential for growth in each of these 10 National Federations clearly came out in the workshop. To broadly summarize, our National Federations want three things: 1. Increase the number of players in their countries; 2. Improve the performances of their national teams and national competitions; 3. To be effective in their own performance as National Federations. We will be looking at building with each Federation a development plan to help them to get to the next level."

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