BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Government here has approved a national Strategic Plan for Sports which it says will help “transition sports into a full-fledged industry”.
The plan, developed by the National Sports Council, covers the 2012-2016 period and tackles issues such as training and development, and financing, which continue to plague the country’s sporting fraternity.
“[The Strategic Plan was designed to] achieve operational efficiency at the NSC, develop a sports industry, improve sports facilities and their management, improve sports training and development, develop a high performance sports strategy, achieve commercialisation of sports and solidify financing of sports development,” said Sports Minister Stephen Lashley. “What this translates to is improved governance and development of sports on many fronts, leading to improved athlete performance and medal tallies.”
He added: “This is a significant achievement which sets the tone for the transitioning of sports into a full-fledged industry, thus contributing to the diversification of the Barbados economy.”
Lashley said the plan had now paved the way for an even more important piece of legislation which would seek to change the national psyche regarding sports.
According to him, sports needed to be viewed as the business it had become.
“Over the next five years our focus will be on ensuring that the sports sector is taken to a new level in Barbados, where it can benefit from many incentives that will cause it to grow,” Lashley pointed out.
“That is why the Ministry has started work with key partners on a Sports Development Bill, which will be a comprehensive piece of legislation designed to treat sports as the industry that it needs to be.”
