Funds Disbursed Under Multi-million Dollar Award Programme

Mr Nicholas Fang asked the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) how much funds have been given out under the Multi-Million Dollar Award Programme since its inception as a programme for rewarding medals won at major sporting games; and (b) what is the breakdown of the medals won.

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Mr Speaker, Sir, the Multi-Million Dollar Award Programme (MAP) is an initiative of the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), and it is fully funded with the support of sponsors. Since its inception in 1991, a total of $21.76 million has been awarded under the MAP, of which $20.43 million went to the athletes while $1.33 million to National Sports Associations to further the development of their sports.

Prize monies are awarded for gold medals at the SEA Games and for gold, silver and bronze medals at the Commonwealth, Asian and Olympic Games. In total, prize monies were given out under the MAP for a total of 483 medals. This comprises 336 SEA Games medals, 62 Commonwealth Games medals, 82 Asian Games medals and three Olympic Games medals.

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Mr Speaker, one supplementary question for the Acting Minister. I think the sports scene has changed since the MAP was first introduced to where we are now with more Singaporeans being asked to dedicate themselves to sports excellence. My question pertains to whether or not the Ministry would consider encouraging SNOC to look at, perhaps, scrapping the MAP completely and moving away from a transactional nature when it comes to encouraging our athletes to dedicate themselves to sports.

I think a lot of young athletes these days still view the fact that representing the country and winning for Singapore is an honour and a reward in and of itself. Front-loading the support from the MAP to the training and preparation process will be a more practical way of supporting a sportsman and Sports Associations and also give greater assurances to athletes, coaches, Sports Associations and the families, that the support will be coming in a very structured way from the start, more akin to giving somebody the petrol to drive from A to B, rather than saying, "When you reach there, I will give you the petrol then". This will signal to more stakeholders and sponsors that holistic kind of support framework is needed, and is more beneficial to the sports community.

I thank the Member for the supplementary question. It is something that I think we will be happy to discuss with SNOC and with the sports community in general. I think the Member will be aware that there is a differentiation between what the Government funds to SSC and MAP which is an agreement between the SNOC and its sponsors, principally the Tote Board and Singapore Pools, and other private sponsors. The agreement between SNOC and its sponsors is subject to review from time to time – I think every four years – and this present agreement would be due for review in 2015 after the SEA Games. That is an agreement between SNOC and its sponsors.

On the Government side, the idea that the Member mentioned about whether or not some of these private sponsorships can be brought over to supporting athletes in their training and development, rather than be provided as an incentive or as a reward for their achievement, I think that balance is something we will be happy to discuss and have a conversation on, not just with SNOC, being mindful that it has a separate agreement with its sponsors, but also with the sports community at large. And with Singaporeans to see where that balance should be. That is something we will be happy to facilitate.

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