NILAI, Dec 9 — The newly-appointed Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh today urged all ministries to join hands for the betterment of the country’s sports.
Yeoh said she also wants to see more involvement of corporate companies because the role of the Ministry of Youth and Sports alone is not sufficient to boost the development of sports in the country.
“Each ministry cannot act alone and needs to create more coordination with other ministries.
“For example, you must talk to the Ministry of Finance and bring all partners together if you are looking at tax relief. And if you are looking at education, you must get the Ministry of Higher Education to get involved too and not just the Ministry of Education,” she said.
Yeoh told reporters this after witnessing the launch of the Yayasan Sime Darby Track Series (YSDTS) cycling competition at the National Velodrome here.
At the same time, she welcomed YSD’s initiative to collaborate with the Foundation for Malaysian Sporting Excellence (SportExcel) in organising YSDTS, which provides a platform to unearth new talents in track cycling.
Yeoh said she also hopes to see more local sports tournaments open up opportunities for women to compete and showcase their talent.
“As a female minister, this (participation of more women) is one of the aspects that I will pay close attention to,” she said.
In the meantime, she said she would meet with athletes, stakeholders and sports associations at a town hall session next week.
YSDTS is a three-year programme that aims to pique the interest of Malaysians to engage in cycling, besides encouraging the establishment of a new professional track cycling team as one of the channels for discovering young talents for the national squad.
A total of 52 races for the elite and junior categories of Under-15 (U-15), U-17 and U-19 are scheduled to be held during that period. — Bernama
