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Cabinet seeking to open sports ministry
The cabinet says it has now finalised plans to upgrade the Sports Administration to a new ministry-level agency by next August.
According to cabinet Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin, Premier Cho Jung-tai has signed off on the proposal to create a Sport's Ministry following two months of consultations with dozens of professional athletes, scholars and industry representatives.
Kung says physical education and campus sports activities will still be handled by the Ministry of Education, but responsibility for training professional athletes and promoting sports at the community level will shift to the proposed ministry.
The proposal will soon be sent to the legislature for review and the cabinet secretary-general says the premier is urging bipartisan support for the bill to ensure its passage before the current legislative session ends early next year.
Sports Administration head Zheng Shi-zhong has said the new agency will be established to popularize various types of sports, effectively reversing the current policy that concentrates government resources on a select group of elite athletes.
