Minister’s goal: Making Sabah a sports powerhouse
Published on: Friday, June 14, 2019
KOTA KINABALU: Making Sabah the powerhouse in sports in the country is the ultimate goal for Youth and Sports Minister Ginger Phoong Jin Zhe.
He disclosed this after paying a visit to the Kota Kinabalu Sports Complex here in Likas on Thursday.
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The trip was his first stop before visiting the other 15 sports complexes in the State to help him understand the problems facing the management.
“This is the start of my tour to visit all the 16 sports complex in the State and it will last until June 23. We will visit each and every one of them to give me as the new Youth and Sports Minister an understanding of the problems.
“We know there are a lot of things that need to be improved upon and we will try to solve them with the new team that we have.
“We already have plans to set aside funds to improve the sports facilities in the State, and at the end of the day we not only want to have good facilities but also to have our athletes shine at national and international competitions.
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“To bring back our former glory, the athletes deserve good facilities and that is why we are here today to understand the whole situation and all the problems,” he said.
The Minister, who was accompanied by Likas Assemblyman Tan Lee Fatt, the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Yusrie Abdullah, Sabah Sports Board Chairman Dr KH Tan and all the board directors admitted that there are some financial issues with the large number of complexes to maintain.
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“There are problems on the funds, and we understand that because we have the most number of stadiums in the country to take care of, and two more are coming up as well.
“The challenge for us is always the high maintenance and with the Sabah Sports Board we are looking for a solution to cut down the costs, so that it should be sustainable and we will review to the pubic very soon,” he added.