$31 Million Grant In FY07 To National Sports Associations

$31.9 Million Grant In FY07 To National Sports Associations

$31.9 million will be made available to local National Sports Associations (NSAs) in the upcoming Financial Year 2007 (1 April 2007 - 31 March 2008). Up from $31.1 million disbursed last year, this represents a 2.6% increase in direct grants allocated to local NSAs to fund their sports development programmes.

On top of the $31.9 million, SSC will also make provisions to support viable programmes and new opportunities that may arise during the fiscal year.

SSC will also provide $8.6 million in grants to sports partners to nurture a vibrant sporting culture by encouraging more private sector involvement in sports via SSC's Sports Partnership Promotion Programme and Sports Education Programme, with the latter being a collaboration with the Ministry of Education. This represents an increase of 43% in grants to sports partners, up from $6 million last year.

Singapore Sports Council's (SSC) Chief Executive Officer, Mr Oon Jin Teik said, "Singapore has recorded historical highs in medal tally in the last three consecutive Major Games - SEA Games, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. As we plot the path forward, the outcome-based funding model encourages NSAs to be more disciplined and purposeful in the way we design our programmes and invest our resources. It is important that we use our limited resources wisely and prudently to achieve optimum results. At the end of the day, it is about stretching every dollar and prioritising limited resources into programmes that can best deliver the Sporting Singapore vision."

The allocation of NSA grants is based on SSC's outcome-funding model, which was launched in 2005 and implemented in 2006. Under the funding model, each NSA programme is evaluated based on the NSAs ability to adhere and align itself to SSC's three strategic thrusts.

The three strategic thrusts are:

• High Performance - developing athletes and sport towards excellence
  

• High Participation - increasing participation for the Sport
  

• Industry Development - wide-ranging international sports event

These strategic thrusts are specially developed with the aim of creating optimum impact towards achieving the Committee on Sporting Singapore (CoSS) objectives.