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SINGAPORE: A National Sports Associations (NSAs) Advisory Council could be set up to help NSAs improve on the management of their athletes.
This was announced by Mr Teo Ser Luck, Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports, in Parliament on Wednesday.
The Advisory Council could enable the NSAs to have access to external expertise, share best practices and device collaboration plans.
"Ultimately, NSAs should aim to be more enterprising and innovative, and to grow their capability and branding. They must always try to attract good people and generate income on top of whatever funding they've been given," said Mr Teo.
Another issue addressed was the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme (FSTS).
During the debate on the Ministry for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) budget estimates, MP for Marine Parade GRC Seah Kian Peng asked if the scheme was diverting resources away from promising local-born athletes.
Elaborating on his views, he said: "I celebrate gold medals as enthusiastically as the next man. But it makes a very great difference whether it is a relatively universal jubilation, like cheering for Manchester United or Arsenal when one of them wins the English Premier League this year, or a peculiar and unique joy of a Singapore victory, like our Mardan Mamat winning the Singapore Masters two years back or Remy Ong almost winning the World Cup recently. In this crucial difference lies the need for a judicial management of local and foreign talents."
Mr Seah also asked if MCYS had undertaken any assessment on the cost-effectiveness of the scheme and the results that had been yielded.
Confirming that foreign talents do get a higher amount of support as the national sports excellence policy focuses limited resources on the top athletes, Mr Teo said this measure has paid off.
"Many of Singapore's recent sporting success at the international stage have been achieved with the help of FSTs. Our FSTs accounted for 34.9 percent of the gold medals at the 2007 SEA Games, even though they only form 7.6 percent of the entire contingent," he said.
However, Mr Teo also made it clear that while foreign sports talents are part of the system in order for Singapore to do well internationally, the scheme is not the system itself.
He said: "We are not prepared for Singapore or any NSA to be the trading hub for foreign athletes."
Mr Teo assured that the Sports Council would continually monitor the training and assistance given to the athletes to ensure that the resources are well-spent.
Looking ahead, Mr Teo added that all athletes can look forward to the establishment of the Singapore Sports Institute at the Sports Hub.
The institute will offer elite support services such as world-class coaching, cutting-edge sports medicine and sports science, career and education.
A working committee will be formed to work out the plans and next steps for this institute.
- CNA/so
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