IPOH, Dec 15 ― Perak will be the first state to introduce the Sports Development Policy for Persons with Disabilities (PwD) to empower sports among the group, the State Legislative Assembly was told today.

State Youth, Sports, Communication and Multimedia Committee chairman Khairul Shahril Mohamed said the move which would involve all parties was to achieve PwD sports excellence up to the national level.

"The Perak State Sports Council is preparing a working paper for consideration and approval of the State Executive Council for the proposed policy.

"I understand it is in the final stage and if this policy is approved, Perak will be the first state in our country to introduce this sports policy (for PwD). Even the National Sports Council still does not have such a policy,” he said.

He was replying to a question from Mohamad Noor Dawoo (BN-Selinsing) who wanted to know the Perak government's initiatives in strengthening sports development for PwD to ensure that the group gets equal rights and opportunities in sports, especially Paralympic sports.

Khairul Shahril said the policy was a state government initiative to ensure the equality of rights, opportunities and interests of the PwD, especially in the field of sports, were more secure as stipulated under the Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 and the Persons with Disabilities Policy.

He said the state government had taken the initiative to formulate the policy so that the direction of PwD sports development could be coordinated more efficiently while ensuring that the responsibility for this was implemented more effectively.

According to him, it can also help complete a realistic sports development ecosystem for the PwD in Perak as well as take into account sports as a platform to further unite the people in the state who are made up of different races, religions, ideologies and political beliefs.

"There are six strategies outlined in the policy, among them strengthening the administrative structure of para athletes through the division of athletes by categories as well as empowering the development programmes of para athletes at each level so that they can be implemented comprehensively right up to the grassroots level,” he said.

Other strategies, he said, were to strengthen the coaching and staffing system to ensure that the athletes were trained by certified coaches and supervised by qualified officials as well as provide special para sports facilities for athletes to undergo more conducive training besides providing opportunities for para sports events to be organised in Perak. ― Bernama