Monday February 29, 2016
Kabul (BNA) Bamyan is one of the snowcapped provinces of the country during winter and its mountain slopes are suitable for winter games specially ski.
Since three years, winter games have been unfading in this province and local and foreign ski players visit this province. Head of Bamyan provincial department of information and culture, Kabir Dadras said, an ski competition was held on Friday Jan 25.2016 in the honor of “Bamyan a Creative City of the World” with the participation of hundreds people and local authorities with the cooperation of HELP organization, Department of Information and Culture, Ski Baba Everest Club, Afghanistan NOC, UNESCO, Afghanistan national Ski Federation on the Gonbadak Hill in the center of Bamyan with the presence of government officials, local and foreign guests, and civilians, 14 boys and 9 girls attended this game. Dadras added, in this competition, Mahboobullah Mahboob, Rahimullah Atayee and Moqeem achieved first, second and third positions respectively among boys and among girls Fatema d/o Mirza Ali, Fatema Nazari and Zakya Mohammadi have got the first, second and third positions respectively. The goal of this event was to introduce the touristic attractions, development of tourism industry in Bamyan as well as encouragement of youth to sport.
He went on to say that since long times, ski has been common and publicized in Bamyan and ski sport has extraordinary importance to Bamyan people and local administration as the latter trying to establish Ski Federation in that province. Bamyan is the only province where the ski games are held and we plan to develop it and Bamyan gained membership of ski International Federation in current year and fortunately our two ski players will be attending officially South Korean Competition in 2018. Dadras added that development of ski programs remain direct impact on improvement of production and marketing of handicrafts and tourism industry and affect our people cultural, economic and social living dimensions. For the first time in 2002 a number of youth carried out ski on the ices of Band-e-Amir and later gradually this game found large enthusiasts. On March 4.2016 international ski challenge competitions are expected to be organized between domestic and foreign ski players in Bamyan with the participation of 22 foreign ski players from Australia, Canada, England, Solovania. Another number have confirmed to attend it from Germany and other countries. He went on to say, holding of international ski competition is a big achievement for development of tourism industry and enjoys particular importance to people of Bamyan that would create good incomes to locals especially to Hotel owners. The winner of boys first position Mahboobulah Mahboob described lack of winter facilities, transportation etc as the big challenges ahead of ski development and requested the local authorities to make serious efforts to tackle these issues. Mahboob added, if God willing, I would attend upcoming South Korean international competitions and hope to achieve further pride to my people and country. In opinion of experts, if the Afghan government and national and international organizations invest in ski in Bamyan, it certainly develops quickly and would attract more tourists. Karima Malikzada