PUTRAJAYA, Oct 9 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob today outlined the path for sports development in the country by empowering women’s participation, scouting new talents and making sports a new source of economic growth.

When opening the National Sports Day (HSN) 2021 celebration at the Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) here today, the prime minister launched the Action Plan on Women in Sports; Talent Identification and Development Programme (MyTID) and formulation of the National Sports Industry Action Plan.

Ismail Sabri said the Action Plan on Women in Sports outlined the objectives, strategies and initiatives towards empowering the involvement and participation of women in various fields of sports towards making the development of national sports more inclusive and balanced.

"The Action Plan on Women in Sports is targeted to increase the overall involvement of women in sports activities, leadership in sports bodies and participation in coaching and as sports officials,” he said.

Ismail Sabri said the government had allocated RM10 million to ensure success of the action plan which contained five thrusts, eight objectives, 19 strategies and 45 initiatives.

The Women in Sports Committee has also been set up to plan and monitor the implementation of the action plan, he said, adding that the 15-member committee comprised representatives from the ministry, sports bodies, former athletes and experienced individuals.

Ismail Sabri said the action plan was in line with the National Sports Policy and the Sports Development Act 1997, as well as international policies and laws, such as the Olympic Charter, Olympic Agenda 2020, Kazan Action Plan and The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Realising the importance of developing sports talents to produce champions in international sports events, Ismail Sabri also launched the MyTID programme, which involves the Education Ministry and the Youth and Sports Ministry (MyTID KPM-KBS).

He said implementation of the MyTID KPM-KBS programme would involve a total of 500 trained teachers known as Talent Eagles and participation of 60,000 primary school students from Year One to Year Six.

 "This programme is expected to help expand the participation of new talents, as young as seven-year-old, who have the potential at the grassroots level so that they can be identified earlier and reduce the risk of talent dropout,” he added.

The prime minister said the Youth and Sports Ministry was also formulating a national sports industry action plan to make sports a new source for the country’s economy.

"This plan, which will be comprehensive and competitive, aims to make sports a new source in generating the country’s economic growth, in line with developments at the global level,” he added.

He said the formulation of the plan was necessary after taking into account the world economic data which showed that the global market value of sports, which reached almost US$388.3 billion (RM1.6 trillion) in 2020, was expected to reach US$599 billion in 2025.

Data obtained from the International Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) in 2020 showed that a total of 32.7 million Malaysians spent RM430 million for sports and recreation.

 Also present at the event were Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali and Public Service director-general Tan Sri Mohd Khairul Adib Abd Rahman. — Bernama