RM490 million Sports Training Centre outside London

personal note: what is it for? show foreigners how rich we are?

All plans for RM490 million Sports Training Centre outside London should be frozen until Azalina could convince Parliament and the sports community that it is not another extravagant empire-building bash only benefiting Sports Ministry officials for overseas junkets and that the  money could not be better spent to raise Malaysian sports standards and talents

Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  

(Parliament, Wednesday) There is general consensus among Members of Parliament  cutting across party lines questioning the merit and  validity of the proposed RM490 million Sports Training Complex in Brickendonbury outside London.

All plans for the  RM490 million Sports Training Centre outside London should be frozen until the Youth and Sports  Minister Datuk Azalina Othman Said  could convince Parliament and the sports community that it is not another extravagant empire-building bash only benefiting Sports  Ministry officials for overseas junkets and that the  money could not be better spent to raise  and promote Malaysian sports standards and talents.

After Azalina抯 written  answer to my question on Monday that the government will go  ahead and build the RM490 million 揾igh-performance sports training centre

13Friday

July 19, 2006 20:30 PM     

London Authorities Say No To Sports Centre


PUTRAJAYA, July 19 (Bernama) -- Initial response from the London authorities showed that they would not allow the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia in Brickendonbury, London, to be turned into a High Performance Sports Centre, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Wednesday.

They would not allow any extension to the present buildings as they wanted to preserve the area, the prime minister said.

"It was just a suggestion. It didn't work out. So far there's no official response.

"We want to implement it but if the authorities in London say no, then it's no," he told a news conference at his officer here.

Abdullah was responding to a question on the Youth and Sports Ministry's proposal for such a centre to enable Malaysia to be closer to a country excellent in sports so that expertise and technologies could be transferred to Malaysians.

The proposal drew mixed responses from the public, sports community and parliamentarians, including those who oppose it, citing the RM490 million cost for the centre as being too high.

However, the ministry denied the figure in the Dewan Rakyat Tuesday saying that a decision had yet to be made on the proposal.

Abdullah said that since the proposal could not proceed, the allocation could be utilised for other matters.

-- BERNAMA

Ministry to push for project

KUALA LUMPUR: The Youth and Sports Ministry will pursue with the proposed sports centre in England despite strong objections from various quarters, including the opposition parties.

Its minister, Datuk Azalina Othman Said, said the centre was needed to mould Malaysian sportsmen to become high achievers.

She slammed detractors of the project, saying their criticisms were baseless, especially with regard to the cost of the project.

揑 don抰 see why this project has become an issue because the cost, which was raised by opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, has yet to be finalised,

13Friday

another like the scenic bridge in JB?

bravotwozero

for me it is a waste of money.........

bravotwozero

we still can train our athlete locally by inviting instructor from outside........

twinstar

an absolute moronic idea that will take one to come up with

the intention is good, if people in the country living a good and wealthy life. we have so much problem here from social to economy to politic; oil price is raising, people are protesting, imbalances are everywhere and that's how people react when that amount of money is put into external "wants" rather than "needs" we suffer internally.

we are the largest exporter in southeast asia, with the numbers of resources we have in our country, why is our oil price almost the same with singapore? and its even more irony that we owned one of the fortunate oil company petronas..

the government cerntainly needs to provide more transparency on a matter like this.