MIRI: Ministry of Youth and Sports will see an increase in its allocation to RM29 million next year for its youth development and sports programme.
Its deputy minister Senator Gan Ping Sieu yesterday disclosed that this was because youth participation in sporting activities in the country was still low compared to countries like Canada and Australia.
As such, he said, “We are going to intensify the development of ‘sports for the masses’ and it is an ongoing process, especially at the grassroots level throughout the country. However, we are facing a problem as most of the sports are mostly localised or dependent on the interest of the locals.”
He added in a dialogue session with youth leaders in the division that the ministry is going to build more futsal courts and encourage more meaningful sporting activities with the help of grassroots sports organisations, in the hope of developing a sports industry.
Apart from that, Gan said the ministry and Youth and Sports Department are going to restructure and review some of their approaches in youth development with the vision to make it more alluring to the youths, noting that it was crucial and important for the government to know and identify what attracts the interest of the youths today.
Meanwhile, the ministry is going to implement a Youth Parliament either by this year or end of January to equip youths with the experience, skills and knowledge in leadership.
The ministry is now in the midst of categorising youths according to a suitable range of age. Youths are those aged between 18 and 25 according to international standard but in Malaysia, youths are categorised as those between 14 and 40.
The ministry and Youth and Sports Department will work together with non-governmental organisations to look into this aspect.