Youth and sports minister Hannah Yeoh said she did not have full details of the Penang offer, conveyed through its state executive councillor for sports.

She said the proposal will be studied and brought to the Cabinet by the end of the month. “We are trying to rush the Cabinet paper before our athletes head over to Paris for the Olympic Games,” she said.

The 2024 Olympics will be held from July 26 to Aug 11.

Last month, the Sarawak government said it was prepared to bear half the cost of hosting the SEA Games, and asked for the opening ceremony to be held in Kuching. The SEA Games is estimated to cost RM750 million.

Yeoh said: “We also have other states that stated their willingness to be involved in (hosting the SEA Games). We will see if these states have enough hotels to accommodate the participants. All these are being considered.”

When asked if Penang was only interested in hosting several events, Yeoh said she had yet to receive detailed information on the matter, Bernama reported. “They have stated their desire to be the sponsor of a venue and they also want to give a little contribution to the National Sports Council,” she said.

Yeoh said the SEA Games Federation is drawing up an agreement between Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand to ensure that the list of competitive sports at the games is consistent with those of the Asian Games and Olympic Games.

The agreement is to prevent a repeat of an incident at the Cambodia SEA Games last year at which many categories were dropped.

“If the categories are not consistent, it will disadvantage our athletes. They train so hard but have no event to participate in,” she said.