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ocused on hosting and doing well in the 2018 Asian Games quadrennial multisport event, Indonesia is not putting the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian (SEA) Games on its 2017 top-four priority list, says a minister.

The Youth and Sports Ministry’s main work for next year are the preparations of the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang in South Sumatra, as well as the Asian Paralympic Games; the setting up of the Olympic Center for the 2018 Games; and the ongoing work of the Gold for Indonesia (Prima) elite program.

“We haven’t even set a medal target for the 2017 SEA Games. That’s simply because the government’s focus for the coming years is the Asian Games,” sports minister Imam Nahrawi told a press conference in Jakarta on Friday.

Indonesia will host the 18th Games, the country’s second after the first in 1962 in Jakarta, featuring 41 sports. The Rp 8 trillion (US$595 million) Games are expected to welcome thousands of athletes from 45 Asian countries.

The SEA Games, however, are being treated as a midway event — part of the nation’s preparations in boosting athletes’ performance — prior to the 2018 Games.

“We’ve set a maximum of 250 athletes to go to Kuala Lumpur,” said Imam, adding that in Singapore’s 2015 SEA Games, Indonesia sent 560 athletes.

“We will also be participating only in sports that we’re good at. The Kuala Lumpur-bound athletes are the ones with potential — those who are expected to achieve well in the biennial multisport event,” he said.

Indonesia’s favorite sports in the SEA Games are rowing, track and field as well as badminton.

In the 2015 SEA Games, Indonesia collected 47 gold medals to finish at fifth after overall champion Thailand, second-place Singapore, third-place Vietnam and Malaysia at fourth.

In the all-time SEA Games medal table, Indonesia sits in the top two after participating in 20 SEA Games with a total of 1,714 gold medals since its debut in 1977. Meanwhile, leader Thailand has collected a total of 2,089 gold medals from 28 Games since 1959.

In 2016, Indonesia passed several momentous milestones, including winning a gold medal in the Rio Olympic Games, having its national soccer team — which was suspended for a year by world soccer body FIFA — finishing the 2016 AFF Suzuki Cup as runner-up and witnessing its first Formula One driver, Rio Haryanto, taking part the prestigious event, even if for only half a season.

The government also started to support Olympic medalists with yearly allowances and bonuses.

Besides preparing the Asian Games, the minister promised to continue developing Indonesian sports.

“We plan to allow access for our national soccer players to become civil servants, or join the military or become police officers,” said Imam.

The minister also said he would make the best use of sports venues used in September’s National Games as additional national training grounds, besides the Olympic Center in Cibubur, East Jakarta, to boost the nation’s performance at the Asian Games.