Move to upgrade sports infrastructure in rural areas

KOTA BARU: The Youth and Sports Ministry will focus on upgrading and constructing sports infrastructure in rural and semi-rural areas in a bid to enable a larger portion of Malaysians to benefit from such facilities.

Its minister, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (pic), said this will help avoid a situation where such efforts were limited only to urban areas.

The move follows the need for good sporting infrastructure in rural and semi-rural areas in many states, he told reporters here yesterday after an awards ceremony for the Youth Power Club at the state’s Kompleks Belia dan Sukan.

“For example, we will upgrade halls, futsal courts and such, ” Syed Saddiq said, adding that priority would be given to areas with a high population of youth.

On the construction of more sports complexes, he said the ministry would look at the needs in a particular area, explaining that it would be better to build smaller facilities in more areas for the benefit of more people, as opposed to a large piece of infrastructure which could not be enjoyed by many.

Syed Saddiq cited the example of Sabah, where the population was largely scattered over a large area that had few urban centres.

The minister said that a similar approach would be adopted towards the hosting of programmes, in that emphasis would be placed on organising more small-scale events in many more areas, compared to just one large-scale affair. — Bernama