SINGAPORE'S SPORTSMEN AND SPORTSWOMEN

SINGAPORE'S SPORTSMEN AND SPORTSWOMEN: **

(International and regional games): **

13.

Mr Charles Chong asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports what assistance has been provided by the Ministry for Singapore's sportsmen and sportswomen to prepare them for international and regional games such as the Youth Olympic Games, Asian Games and ASEAN Games.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: The National Sports Associations (NSAs) are responsible for the training and preparations of all their athletes, including our national athletes for international competitions and major games. To support the NSAs in the training of our athletes, the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) funds the NSA High Performance programmes. For the current financial year (FY09), SSC will be investing about $20 million in these NSA programmes and training of athletes. SSC also provides other forms of support including

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the provision of facilities and sports medicine and sports science services, at a cost of about $7.3 million in FY09. The support given to the NSAs cater to over 800 athletes.

The above framework will be supplemented by the recently launched Olympic Pathway Programme (OPP). This builds on the previous Project 0812 programme which was a multi-agency effort to prepare athletes for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The OPP will provide support for a select group of top athletes to help them achieve success at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

MCYS and MOE have also set up the Singapore Youth Sports Development Committee in September 2008 to focus on broadening the participation base and strengthening the youth development pipeline. This supplements the Singapore Sports School (SSP), funded by MCYS, which prepares our younger athletes for regional and international games.

The Singapore Youth Sports Development Committee also channels resources to NSAs so that they can provide more opportunities for young athletes to participate in training or in selection trials for the YOG.

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