AMPANG: With Malaysia facing an ageing population crisis, increased investment into sports facilities and programmes could be key to keeping ageing Malaysians healthy for generations to come, says Ling Tian Soon.
The MCA Youth chief said increasing overall accessibility to sports was key to ensuring Malaysians are able to exercise whenever they are able to.
“We need to start planning and building more sports and healthcare facilities before the crisis becomes too serious.
“By doing this, we can prepare our youth to be healthier by the time they start to get older.
“This is especially important since it will allow us to tackle our high rate of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which is one of the highest in the region,” he told The Star during a pickleball event with the media here on Wednesday (Feb 11).
Due to pickleball’s growing popularity among all age groups, Ling also said the government should consider pushing for more investments into the sport and others like it
“If the market is there, we should do more to encourage more investment in the industry.
“To this, they can consider hosting more public tournaments on trending sports that everyone can join, as well as promoting the sports to more members of the public,” he added.
The pickleball event, organised by MCA Youth, saw over 10 pairs of teams from various media agencies take part in a casual mini-tournament, with the winner earning a small prize and certificate.
