NATIONAL STADIUM CORPORATION BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

6.24 p.m.

The Minister for Social Affairs (Inche Othman Bin Wok): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The National Sports Complex at Kallang at present under construction, when completed, will provide comprehensive facilities for a variety of requirements of international games with sophistication and standards required of the Olympics. Situated in a general recreational area in the heart of the city and adjacent to the sea, the complex will provide for a main open-air stadium for track and field events which will, in the first instance, accommodate 50,000 with provision for extension up to 100,000 spectators, two covered stadium for indoor sports, with one for 8,000 and the other for 4,000 spectators, swimming pools and tennis courts.

The idea of the complex was first mooted in 1964, but the actual construction started only in 1968. The main stadium will be completed towards the end of 1972 and will constitute the first phase. The other features of the complex will be the second phase, preliminary work on which has begun.

The design and construction of the first phase has been done entirely by the Public Works Department in Singapore and a Singapore contractor. The second phase is being undertaken by Messrs Kenzo Tange and Urtec, headed by the world-renowned architect and planner, Professor Tange. The whole complex is expected to be completed by early 1975. The complex is located on State land. Constructional costs are expected to be in the region of S$60 million.

The main and covered stadium, essentially catering for sports, will be multipurpose. The main stadium is also planned to be used for parades, rallies and concerts. The covered stadium will also be used for exhibitions, forums, etc., besides a variety of indoor sports requirements.

In the third phase will be the development of facilities in the vicinity for multi-storeyed car parks and a mass transportation system to provide for easier and quicker access to the complex from other parts of Singapore.

The main stadium will also provide for reception and refreshment areas, especially shopping arcades, offices for sports organisations, accommodation for centralised training and indoor sports facilities like mini golf, driving ranges, etc.

It was originally intended that the National Sports Promotion Board would also be responsible for the Kallang Sports Complex. However, since the Board will be preoccupied with its many and varied functions to actually promote and develop sports standards and popularity in Singapore, it is now considered that the Sports Complex at Kallang should be separately and efficiently managed, as far as possible, as an economically viable concept. It is, however, essential to ensure that not only are the stadium and related facilities utilised, but also that they will fully help in the promotion of sports. There will, therefore, be necessity for correlation and co-ordination of the policies of the National Sports Promotion Board and the proposed National Sports Corporation to see that, as far as possible, they complement each other in the best interests of sports promotion in Singapore. In fact, it is the intention to provide that a member of the National Sports Promotion Board will serve on the Board of Management of the proposed National Stadium Corporation.

The National Stadium Corporation will look after all the facilities in the National Sports Complex at Kallang. The monies required for their realisation will, in the first instance, be obtained from grants made by Singapore Pools (Private) Limited from their annual profits. However, if and when this source of financing is not adequate, it will be possible for the Corporation to obtain loans on a long-term and low-interest basis from the Government.

The Bill provides for the Minister to appoint eight persons to form the Corporation. They will be assisted in their day-to-day operations by an executive staff. The members of the Corporation will be required to prepare and execute proposals for the construction and management of the main stadium and other stadium and sports facilities in the Kallang Sports Complex.

In furtherance of this objective, the Bill provides for the Corporation to enter into contracts, raise funds, receive donations and contributions and other forms of aid from all lawful sources, and to borrow money either from the Government or other sources approved by the Minister. The Bill also provides for the establishment of a National Stadium Fund which will consist of the subventions, donations, loans, grants and contributions mentioned above, and limits the disbursement of such monies solely for the purpose of making payments in or in connection with the performance of its functions, powers and duties.

The Corporation is also required to submit to the Minister for consideration and approval an annual budget containing estimates of its income and expenditure for the ensuing financial year. The approved budget will have to be published in the Gazette and the Corporation will be bound by it. By 31st October of each year, the Corporation is also required to submit a statement of accounts to the Minister. The Minister is also empowered to appoint an auditor to audit the Corporation's accounts and the auditor is required to submit a report of his audit to the Corporation as well as to the Minister.

The Bill also allows the Minister to give directions to the Corporation as to its functions as he thinks fit and he may also empower the Corporation to make regulations.

The Corporation is exempted from the payment of stamp duty and income tax and gifts to the fund are exempted from income tax.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question proposed.

6.31 p.m.

Mr Ch'ng Jit Koon: (In Mandarin):Mr Speaker, Sir, since ancient times, athletic sports have been an important item of activities. Today, countries throughout the world, whether big or small, attach great importance to sports and are actively promoting them so that they have become even more popular. Especially in this fast-changing society where life is both busy and tense, sports have an important role to play in promoting health and harmonizing the mind and the body. In addition to this, sports also play an important role in the international political arena. They are the main bridge to the promotion of international friendship and understanding.

Singapore has been very active in promoting and popularising sports activities. Particularly today when we are an independent, sovereign and young developing country, we have been behind none in sports activities. This is in keeping with our foreign policy of "Making more friends and fewer enemies", so as to establish friendship and promote good relations with other countries. On the other hand, the great majority of our population is made up of youths who are our future successors and who must have the prerequisites of health and ruggedness before they can shoulder the heavy task of nationhood. Therefore, in order to meet the aim of our Government to build a rugged "Society, a big and well-equipped national stadium is necessary. Equally important is the need to set up a Corporation to take full charge of the planning, building and managing of such a big sports complex. Therefore, I welcome the presentation of this Bill. However, I would like to give two points of view for consideration.

Firstly, as revealed by the authorities concerned, the National Sports Complex is quite a large complex; hence the cost of its maintenance and operation will also be considerable. In clause 15 of the Bill, Singapore Pools (Private) Limited and grants in aid of the Government are included as among the sources of finance. I would like to stress here the importance of Government financial aids. Otherwise, the Sports Complex will be like the National Theatre and be faced with the same problem. Because without Government aid, the National Theatre, in order to survive on a "self-supporting" basis, has to seek a solution by living on rentals and hire fees, thus meeting with diverse difficulties while promoting art in our country. In this way, civic art organisations are also not benefited. What we are worried about is that if there is no Government financial aid, the National Stadium Corporation, in order to meet the large amount of recurrent expenditure, will similarly be forced to obtain money from civic organisations and spectators in the last resort. Then it will be contrary to the high ideal and aim of promoting sports in our country by building the National Sports Stadium Complex.

Secondly, with Government's active encouragement and promotional efforts, sports activities in our country can be said to be quite vigorous. However, it is sad to note that the existing number of sports fields is rather inadequate. Some of these are even on private property. Even when the National Sports Complex is completed, these existing grounds still deserve to be preserved and utilized. Therefore, I hope that the authorities concerned will, wherever possible, preserve these existing sports grounds and, at the same time, for the safety of the users and members of the public, try to make the owners of these grounds improve the safety precautions therein.

6.36 p.m.

Mr Teong Eng Siong: (In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Sir, I express my full support for this Bill. The setting up of the National Sports Complex will provide perfect facilities for sports in our country. The National Stadium Corporation is given the main task of managing and administering the Sports Complex. This is a very important task. Undoubtedly, the setting up of the National Stadium symbolises the fact that sports in Singapore have entered a new era and have marched a step forward. It is a milestone in our sports history. According to the Minister, a sum of $60 million will be involved in the setting up of the National Sports Complex. This is a huge sum of money. Since we have mobilised such a large amount of money and have put out efforts to build a sports complex, I hope we will have better means of raising the standard of our sports and also of popularising sports among our people so that they may be stronger and more healthy and so serve our country better.

The Bill sets out the functions of the National Stadium Corporation, one of which is to raise the standard of sports in our country. In this respect, I am of the view that we should pay particular attention to the following two tasks.

The first is about the setting up of a sports fund. As we all know, in the past few years we have been very active in sports. We have tried our best to take part in various regional and international sports tournaments. However, the common problem faced by people in sports circles is the raising of funds. Therefore, whenever a tournament is to be held on a large scale, it is necessary for people in sports circles to try their best to raise funds to meet the expenditure. I remember some members of our national teams were not given the opportunity to take part in international or regional sports meets because of lack of funds. Therefore, we must try to get enough money for the sports fund so as to be able to develop sports in our country. I hope the Corporation will pay special attention to the question of raising funds to supplement the National Stadium Fund, whether from Government or other sources. With adequate funds, we will be able to train our sportsmen and sportswomen so that they can compete in the international and regional sports arena and also raise our standard of sports.

The second point is that the Corporation should also pay attention to the provision of engaging capable sports coaches in all fields and have regular periods of training for our national teams. Only with planned and regulated training programmes can our national teams hope to win any laurels or prizes in international or regional competitions and to bring glory to our country.

I hope the Minister will pay attention to these two points.

6.43 p.m.

Mr Ng Yeow Chong (Mountbatten): Mr Speaker, Sir, in connection with Phase II of the National Sports Complex in Kallang Park, I wish to ask the Minister two questions. Firstly, what is the fee for engaging the services of Prof. Tange to carry out the project? Secondly, why are local architects not given the chance to carry out such a prestigious project of our own?

Inche Othman Bin Wok: Mr Speaker, Sir, on the two points raised by the Member for Tiong Bahru - one deals with financial aid from the Government. I would like to assure him in particular and other Members of this House who are interested in sports that they need not worry about sports and financial aid from the Government. In fact, the Government has gone into sports activities one hundred per cent. This Bill provides for the National Stadium Corporation to approach the Government for loans if it is necessary to help the Corporation financially.

On the second question of safety precautions raised by the Member, this has always been borne in mind not only by the National Stadium Corporation but also by the National Sports Promotion Board. And we are looking into this very actively and Members can be assured that precautionary measures will be taken for the safety of sportsmen and sportswomen and also for the spectators in the sports complex.

The Member for Sembawang raised two points - to raise the standard of sports and to popularise sports among the masses. On the question of raising the standard of sports, this has been going on for the last three or four years. We are always looking into or trying our best to raise the standard of sports in Singapore. In fact, when I answered a Question of one Member earlier, I said that the Singapore Badminton Association has already a scheme by which the standard of badminton is going to be improved. Many other sports organisations will be doing likewise. So the Member need not worry about this.

On the popularisation of sports among the masses, sports activities will be carried out at constituency level next year. We are promoting inter-constituency sports competitions. If I am not mistaken, we will start with football and sepak takraw. I hope every Member of Parliament will encourage all sports organisations in their constituencies to participate in these competitions.

On the question of a sports fund, clause 15 of the National Stadium Corporation Bill provides that the Corporation will actively promote fund raising.

On the question of capable coaches, here again the N.S.P.B, has always been looking into it. We have brought in one or two capable coaches from overseas to train our sportsmen and sportswomen.

On the point raised by the Member for Mountbatten as to the amount of fees to be paid to Professor Tange for the second phase of the Sports Complex, I am afraid I cannot tell the Member offhand. But I will find out about this and will inform the Member if he wishes to know.

As to the question why local architects are not given the chance to build the two covered stadium, this is because we would like to have something special for the Sports Complex and we thought that Professor Tange is the best man who could plan for us the two covered stadia inside the Sports complex.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill.-[Inche Othman Wok].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.