Busan City to Host 2025 World Anti-Doping Agency General Assembly, First Time in Asia

Busan City Hall.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Du-yeol] The 2025 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) General Assembly will be held in Busan in November 2025.

Busan City secured the hosting rights for the WADA General Assembly by winning an overwhelming number of votes against competing cities such as Tampere, Finland, at the ‘WADA Board Meeting’ held in Cairo, Egypt on the 19th.

The WADA General Assembly has been held a total of five times since it was first held in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1999 until 2019.

The General Assembly was held four times in Europe and once in Africa, and with the 2025 assembly being hosted in Busan, it will be held in Asia for the first time.

Hosting the 2025 General Assembly is a significant achievement as it not only creates added value through hosting an international conference but also provides an opportunity to promote Busan as a global MICE city to the world.

This is a great opportunity for Busan City, which is making every effort to attract the 2030 World Expo.

Despite unfavorable conditions where European Union and Council of Europe countries openly supported Finland at this board meeting, Busan succeeded in securing the hosting rights.

The city has been actively engaged in on-the-ground promotional activities in cooperation with the Busan Tourism Organization, BEXCO, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Korea Anti-Doping Agency (KADA).

The city launched a bidding committee with KADA, appointing Jang In-hwa, chairman of the Busan Sports Council, as the bidding committee chairman, and appointed Yoo Seung-min, International Olympic Committee member, along with various experts as committee members.

Park Eun-ha, Busan City’s International Relations Ambassador, directly presented the proposal, followed by Lee Jeong-min, an athlete from the Asian Paralympic Committee, who pledged as an athlete to realize fair values and committed to doing her best to spread these values.

Park Eun-ha, Busan City’s International Relations Ambassador, appealed to ambassadors of various countries stationed in Korea one by one to support Busan, leveraging her network built over 37 years as a diplomat. Honorary consuls stationed in Busan also lent their support.

Lee Byung-jin, Acting Mayor of Busan, said, “Following the successful hosting of the 2023 World Para Games and the 2024 World Table Tennis Championships, securing this General Assembly marks an opportunity for Busan to emerge as a leading city in the international sports community.”

The Acting Mayor added, “We will do our best to successfully host the 2025 World Anti-Doping Agency General Assembly and secure the 2030 World Expo, whose host city will be selected next year, to establish Busan as a world-class global MICE city.”