SEA and Asean Para Games number plates to go on sale

SPECIAL vehicle number plates will be offered to the public starting next month to raise funds for the SEA Games and Asean Para Games Kuala Lumpur 2017.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the sale of the special edition vehicle registration plates would start tomorrow.

“The Kuala Lumpur Games Organising Committee will be ma­­king an announcement on the special car plates,” he said when answering a question by Datuk Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir (BN-Kulim Bandar Baru) in Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Abd Aziz wanted to know whe­ther sufficient funds were allocated to organise the two games sche­duled to take place in Kuala Lumpur later this year.

Khairy told the House that RM450mil was allocated to the mi­­nis­try to organise both games and it was sufficient.

“We are not planning to spend the money to develop new sport facilities as we will be using existing facilities for the games,” he added.

“We are only building a new ve­­lodrome which was planned ear­lier, so it does not come under the allocation to organise the games.”

To supplement the funds, he said, about 30 companies so far have agreed to provide sponsorship in cash, services and in kind towards the games.

Khairy added that a target of RM30mil cash and RM50mil in services and in kind was set by the ministry.

“We have so far received RM69mil in cash which represents 87% of the total sponsorships,” he said.

“We are confident of successfully organising the games with less than half the amount spent by Singapore to organise the last SEA Games there.”

To a question by Datuk Takiyud­din Hassan (PAS-Kota Baru), Khairy said the national athletes must win at least 100 gold medals if Malaysia wants to become overall champions of the SEA Games.

He also announced that Datuk Lee Chong Wei, Datuk Nicol David and the national senior hockey team would not participate in the games, to make way for budding athletes.

Khairy said that Malaysia would also be taking part in ice-hockey, ice-ska­ting and alpine skiing in the inaugural events during the SEA Games.