Sports high on agenda of Macao SAR government

Sports is being penetrated in politics, economy and society of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) nowadays.

Besides the high F3 racing during the 51-year running Macao Grand Prix, there are annual sports events involving dragon-boat race, hockey, golf as well as marathon taken place in Macao attracting crowds of visitors thus helping boost Macao's pillar industry -- tourism.

In his Policy Address for 2005, Macao's Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah called for massive development of popular and athletic sports in order to improve people's health.

Due to historical reasons, Macao has not yet been able to attend the Olympic Games just like Hong Kong, which participates in the Games with the status of "China Hong Kong." The limited land coverage of 27 square kilometers and poor sports facilities hinder its development of physical culture and sports.

Soon after Macao returned to the motherland in 1999, the SAR government invested heavily in building sports facilities and training sportsmen and sportswomen.

Vong Iao Lek, acting president of the Macao Sports Development Board said that the SAR government has increased its input in physical culture from 100 million patacas (12.5 million US dollars) annually to 120 million patacas (15 million US dollars) this year.

Leong Hung Men, a middle school teacher specialized in physical education in Macao, is proud of being the first sportsman sent to study at the Martial Arts Department of the Beijing University of Physical Education soon after Macao's return to China.

"The SAR government regularly sends groups of talent and outstanding sportsmen and sportswomen to study in Beijing every year," he said.

Leong won the second place at the World Martial Art Tournament in 1999 and is preparing to attend the fourth East Asian Games to be held in Macao next year.

The SAR government is accelerating the construction of sports facilities and has appropriated a special fund worth of 2 billion patacas (250 million US dollars) for the construction.

Upon completion in 2005, Macao will have seven new sports gymnasiums and six renovated ones. The per-capita space of sports facilities will expand from 0.27 square meters in 1990 to 1.2 square meters.

Vong noted that Macao would seize the opportunity to develop physical culture in an all-round way.

The bureau plans to invite professional coaches and specialists from outside to help train outstanding sportsmen and sportswomen, and select elite ones to represent Macao participating various national and international sports activities.

According to the 2005 schedule, Macao will sponsor the East Asian Games in October 2005, and the Macao Grand Prix will for the first time become the final station for the World Touring Car Tournament in November. Meanwhile, Macao team will send sportsmen to the World Universiade Games in August 2005, the National Sports Games in October and Thailand's First Asian Indoor Games in November.

Vong is convinced that Macao's sportsmen and sportswomen will be able to stand out among their fellows in the world with the improvement of sports facilities and training courses by 2008 when the Olympic Games is held in China.

Source: Xinhua