Labuan sports and tourism need help, says MP
Published on: Sunday, October 13, 2019
By: Bernama
LABUAN: The over two decades old Labuan Sports Complex is in need of urgent attention, hoping for a spill-over from the RM299 million allocated in the Budget 2020.
Member of Parliament for Labuan, Datuk Rozman Isli (pic), said the sport facilities at the complex had long been neglected due to financial constraints and this had hampered the sports activities in the complex.
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Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng on Friday announced a RM299 million allocation to implement Sports For All programme, including rehabilitating and upgrading of sports facilities, youth and sports complexes and community sports complexes throughout the country.
“The Labuan Youth and Sports Department received RM20 million last year to improve the facilities in the sport complex, but it is still insufficient. Our swimming athletes are still unable to use the swimming pool due to serious damage to its structure,” he said.
He was speaking at a press conference after the Labuan Development Foundation (LDF) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) Dinner at the Lazenda Ballroom Friday night.
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He also said a number of Labuan rugby athletes had been picked to represent Malaysia, therefore it was time for Labuan to have its own rugby field.
Rozman said it was also stepping up its efforts to promote sports tourism with several international games held since last year that had helped spur local economic activities.
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“The allocations for the Labuan tourism sector all these while were very low, and had impeded our efforts to be on par with other popular domestic tourist destinations. We need a bigger allocation to promote our tourism products and create new products for a sustainable tourism sector development,” he said.
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The Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture would receive an allocation of RM1.1 billion in Budget 2020 to fulfil the aspirations of Visit Malaysia Year 2020 (VMY2020).
Rozman also hoped Labuan would get financial assistance from the huge allocation approved to the Education Ministry for repair works on the Labuan Matriculation College as some of its structures were not safe.