Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 1, 2024: Organisers of the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China next February are planning to hold a “sporting and cultural extravaganza,” according to a leading official.

Zhang Haihua, Deputy Secretary General of Harbin 2025, introduced the progress report on the first morning of the Olympic Solidarity/OCA Regional Forum at the Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

Ms. Zhang said the preparations for the 9th AWG were well on track, and informed the delegates of National Olympic Committees from East Asia and South East Asia that the Chefs de Mission Seminar would be held in Harbin this September.

The AWG will take place from February 7-14, 2025 with six sports, 11 disciplines and 64 events, with the ice events at Harbin and the snow sports at Yabuli, almost 200km away.

“It is our goal to hold a sporting and cultural extravaganza,” she told the delegates, as Harbin is famous for its Ice and Snow Festival and also held the 3rd AWG in 1996.

There will be five ice venues in downtown Harbin, and renovation and urpgrading work which began in March will be completed in October, allowing a series of test events to take place in the following three months. At Yabuli there will be eight fields of play for the snow sports.

Organisers also confirmed the days for the three-stage Sport Entry process for NOCs:

Entry by Sport, April 30 to June 19

Entry by Number: September 7 to October 6

Entry by Name: November 7 to December 6.

In other AWG news:

*Nine Technical Delegates have been confirmed.

*Medal plazas have been established in Harbin and Yabuli, although some medal presentations will be held at the competition venues.

*Accreditation will open on July 20 and closes October 7.

*The HAWGIAC accreditation card will serve as a multiple entry visa in and out of China from January 1 to March 1, 2025.

*The arrival and departure services will be in operation from January 24 to February 17.

*Transportation services will run from January 27 to February 17.

*Delegation Registration Meetings will be held from January 27 to February 6.

*Harbin 2025 has a zero-tolerance policy to any forms of sexual harassment.

*OCA Deputy Director General Vinod Kumar Tiwari urged NOCs to register a Safeguarding Officer and Prevention of Manipulation of Competition Officer.