Malaysia needs to be a mart economy to sustain rising sports financing

by **hlk** Fri 29 Jul 2011, 08:16

KUALA LUMPUR: The government wants Malaysia to progress from a planned economy to a market economy as it can't sustain the increasing cost of financing sports in the country, said Minister of Sports Datuk Sri Ahmad Shabery Cheek.

The minister said by 2020 the Ministry wants the development of sports industry to be fully driven by corporate sectors.

He said by then, sports associations will no longer be dependent on financial support from the Government when organising events.

Funding for sports, he said, should move away from sponsorship as corporate responsibility to a more dynamic return of investment.

"Currently, the industry is seen to be fragmented. Only through education and engagement would it help to align all the key stakeholders towards the single objective of developing the foundations of a strong market driven and economically sustainable sports industry," he said in is keynote address at the launch of the The Sports Business Conference yesterday.

He stressed that the Sports Industry Year (SIY) initiative was in line with the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) as it would reduce reliance on public sector funding and make sports more economically sustainable through market driven private initiatives.

The SIY 2011/2012 is a starting point for the Ministry to make sports as one of the contributors to wards the growth of the nation's economy.

He noted that contributions from sports related events towards the country's 2009 gross domestic product (GDP) was about RM30.2 million, where total export value stood at RM836.1 million as com pared to the import value which was only RM812.2 million for the same period.