RM365 mln allocated for research and sports devt — Najib

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KUALA LUMPUR: The government has allocated RM365 million to the Youth and Sports Ministry to encourage sports research and development, organise more international games, provide facilities and expertise to mould competitive athletes and develop high-performance sports.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the allocation was aimed to produce competitive athletes who can compete at the highest level.

“Apart from developing sports, the government, in efforts to develop football, will also set up a football academy in Pahang with an allocation of RM20 million, to produce quality and highly skilled players,” he said when tabling the 2011 Budget in Parliament here yesterday.

Najib, who is the Finance Minister, commended the Malaysian contingent that won 12 gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi to surpass the initial target of 10 gold medals.

“I wish to take this opportunity to wish them ‘syabas’ for making the country proud. This is the country’s best achievement in the history of the Commonwealth Games,”  he said.

Malaysia’s previous best medal haul was 10 golds, during the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games while the past two Games in Manchester (2002) and Melbourne (2006) had only contributed seven gold medals each respectively. — Bernama