Tight budget for youth and sports activities

THE RM1bil allocation to the Youth And Sports Ministry would help to sustain the development of youth and sports activities especially following Malaysia’s mediocre performance at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in Palembang and Jakarta earlier this year.

For the record, the 2018 allocation was also RM1bil..

However, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has to prudently manage the amount, from which RM100mil would be allocated to the Podium Programme, focusing on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in sports such as diving, badminton and cycling. Hopefully, the long-awaited gold medal will finally be achieved..

The youth and sports budget also allocated RM10mil for the development of eSports, which is gaining popularity among youths and would be part of the 2022 Asian Games..

It is hoped that other initiatives like Fit Malaysia, National Sports Day, National Football Development Programme (NLDP) and training programmes for various sports to develop a broader talent pool would be continued..

The development of high performance sports that are not part of the Olympics, like bowling, should not be ignored either, as we have won gold medals at the world championship level and we are producing world class bowlers..

The Malaysian National Sports Association must start looking for sponsors among corporate bodies to help raise funds for their training and development programmes at the grassroots level in order to continuously create a pool of talents for the future..

The respective sports associations must also be scrutinised by independent auditors to ensure their accountability and transparency..

Source