FOREIGN SPORTS TALENTS SCHEME

FOREIGN SPORTS TALENTS SCHEME: 8.

Mrs Jessie Phua asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (a) what is the number of foreign athletes recruited to date under the Foreign Sports Talents (FST) Scheme; (b) what is the number of FST recruits who have obtained Singapore citizenship; and (c) how many of these athletes are currently still in active training and representing Singapore.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Mr Teo Ser Luck) (for the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Foreign Sports Talent (FST) scheme was started in 1993 as a means to raise the standard of our sporting performance at major competitions, and also to encourage more Singaporeans to support and participate in sports.

Some of Singapore's recent sporting successes were achieved with the contributions of foreign-born athletes who committed their sporting careers to represent Singapore. This includes our record-breaking performances at Major Games, such as the 2005 South East Asian Games, the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the 2006 Asian Games, and our consecutive victory at the ASEAN Football Championships in January this year, last year and, more recently, a world record in billiards. So we will continue to keep our doors open for the foreign sporting talents who have the sporting skills and the commitment to become a Singaporean and to be a part of Team Singapore.

The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) administers the FST scheme and will only support applications from the National Sports Associations that have comprehensive training, competition and integration plans for the foreign athletes.

To date, we have 97 athletes who have been recruited under the FST scheme. Of these, 54 athletes have obtained Singapore Citizenship, and 37 of these 54 Singaporean athletes are still active in training and in representing Singapore in major competitions.

Mrs Jessie Phua (Nominated Member): Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to ask the Parliamentary Secretary what happens to the remaining FSTs who are not actively representing Singapore. Is he satisfied with the current level of management of the FSTs? And is the FST scheme here to stay? Will he be looking at modifying it?

Mr Teo Ser Luck: For those who are not active, some have gone into different professions like administration. I know of some who do clerical work. There are those who are still doing sports-related profession like coaching and youth development. I think there will still be room for improvement for the integration plan. I believe that we are planning out several different measures for the Singapore Sports Council to work with the National Sports Associations. Very importantly is to understand how the process of selecting these FSTs started. It starts with the National Sports Associations scouting and recruiting those sports talents that would help in their sports, and they have to answer these three questions. First, what gaps are they trying to close in their sports? Why do they need the foreign talents? Second, how would these foreign talents help them? So they need to come up with a development plan; they need to come up with a training plan for them. Third, when their sports careers are over, what kind of career plans are there for them? Would they give them long-term skills training?

When all these questions are answered, they will present a plan to the Singapore Sports Council which will then discuss it under a Review Committee. Once the Review Committee approves it, it goes into an approval process, through MCYS. Once that is satisfied, then it goes into an application for either a PR or a citizenship with the Immigration authority. So that is the whole process, and we must make sure that the whole process is tedious and transparent enough, and is also factual enough in order to make those decisions. When they are selected and their citizenship or PR status has been approved, that is where the integration process starts and we need the National Sports Associations to help us and to support this whole process.