KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 — The federal government is allocating more than half a billion ringgit for sports development.
Finance minister Lim Guan Eng said sports is a tool to unify the nation and with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics coming up in June next year they have allocated RM179 million for the national team to prepare for it as well as for the 2021 Sea Games in Hanoi.
“Sports can unify the nation and the government are providing RM299 million for sports programmes as well as to fix and recover all existing infrastructure,” Lim said during the tabling of the Budget 2020.
“This includes upkeep of the Youth and Sports Complexes community sports complexes throughout the country.
“As much as RM179 million will be allocated for the Olympics and Sea games in Hanoi in 2021 and this includes development for the para athletes preparing for the paralympics and other major sports events.”
Besides that, Lim also said they have tripled the allocation for the National Football Development Program to RM45 million compared to Budget 2019 which allocated RM15 million.
“The successes of athletes like Datuk Nicol Ann David, Pandelela Rinong and Farah Ann Abdul Hamid at the highest stage has made the nation proud.
“In order to develop more world class athletes the government is allocating Rm10 million for the development of women’s athletes,” Lim added.
“We will continue to develop sports through the youth development programme and as much as RM138 million will be allocated for the Youth power Club, Malaysia Future Leaders School and volunteer initiatives.”
