Games-Indonesia confident of being ready to host 2018 Asian Games

* Indonesia to replace Vietnam as host of next Asian Games * Games switched from 2019 to 2018 because of Indonesian election By Julian Linden INCHEON, South Korea, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Indonesia face a race against time to be ready to host the Asian Games a year early but officials said they were confident everything would be in order after taking over the continent's biggest multi-sports event from Vietnam. Indonesia's Olympic Committee president Rita Subowo said her country was honoured to have been awarded the Games but there was no time to waste after the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) rubber-stamped the change at its general assembly meeting in Incheon. The challenge facing Jakarta is even more urgent after bid leaders asked that the Games, originally scheduled for 2019 in Vietnam, be moved forward by a year to avoid clashing with the next Indonesian presidential election. "We are confident that we are going to fulfil all the requirements," Subowo told a media conference on Sunday. "Of course our nation is so happy with this ... but we have to work hard - starting from yesterday." OCA president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah said he was also confident Jakarta, which hosted the 1962 Asian Games, would be ready but said the vast archipelago would need help. "A lot of the facilities are already in place," he said. "So they will only have to renew some of them. "We will be doing our duty double than any time before because's there's only four years so we have to be active." Sheikh Ahmad expected there would be a five-year gap until the following Games in 2023. The competition would then switch back to a four-yearly cycle after that as part of the OCA plan to move the showcase event away from the same year in which the Winter Olympics and soccer World Cup are held. Hanoi was awarded the Games in 2012 ahead of the Indonesian city of Surabaya but Vietnam pulled out this year, citing the effects of global recession and fears the state would be unable to foot the bill for facilities and venues. BAD DEBT Economists estimated the cost of Vietnam hosting the Games from $150 million up to $500 million, and although the nation's $155 billion economy is in recovery, it faces many deep-rooted problems including weak infrastructure, one of Asia's highest levels of bad debt and a state sector mired in graft and inefficiency. Vietnam's withdrawal forced the OCA to find a quick replacement and Indonesia, the fourth most populated country in the world, quickly emerged as the likely choice when bidding re-opened. Several other countries, including India, toyed with the idea of bidding but most changed their mind, balking at the finances involved for an event that is second only to the Summer Olympics in terms of size. Indonesia's original bid nomination was for the Games to be staged mostly in Surabaya, the country's second-largest city, in East Java. But under the new bid, the Games will now be centred in the national capital Jakarta, although some events will take place in other regions of the country, including nearby Bandung and Palembang, in south Sumatra. Under the bid proposal, Indonesia plans to hold 36 sports, including all 28 Olympic sports. Bid leaders said most of the infrastructure was in place and they had the support of the government. Joko Widodo was elected as Indonesia's new president in July. A former furniture exporter who grew up in Indonesia's slums, he starts his five-year term later this month. He has promised major reforms to the world's third largest democracy but faces huge social and economic challenges with poverty worsening and the budget too tight to allow heavy spending. Sheikh Ahmad said Widodo personally addressed the AOC to provide assurances he would support Indonesia's running of the Games, a move the Asian Olympic boss welcomed. "We think we are in a very secure position because the head of the state will continue to be there until the Games," said Sheikh Ahmad. (Editing by Ian Ransom)