GUADALCANAL Provincial Government (GPG) will continue to implement plans that will aim to help youths engage more in sports activities for the next four years.
Guadalcanal Deputy Premier John Lee Saki announced this during his keynote after the grand final of the 2024 Guadalcanal Soccer Cup Tournament last Thursday at the Lawson Tama Stadium in Honiara.
He was speaking at the closing and prize presentation ceremony.
“There are plans ahead that government will continue to pursue under the recently launched Guadalcanal for Good Governance Policy under its Social sector program to help youths engaged in meaningful social activities such as sports in the future.”
He said under the Social Sector programmes which they launched recently under the Guadalcanal for Good Governance Policy, they included some very important sporting aspirations such as the review of the Guadalcanal Youth Policy 2010.
“We improve, upgrade and coordinate sport bodies in the communities throughout the province, including the upgrading of sport facilities.
“Coordinate and align all sporting activities in the province with the Provincial Sports Division.”
He said, they are also looking at organizing competitive soccer leagues in the communities and providing relevant trainings for coaches and officials to ensure that high standards are demonstrated during all sporting events.
He said under the social sector, they also pursue and coordinate the Guadalcanal School Games throughout Guadalcanal schools and they want to see that Guadalcanal Province to have a High-Performance Sports Center.
“These are some of the goals of this government that I represent which we like to pursue in the next 4 years.
“As these competitions are annual events, I would like to further suggest that we should organize our constituency football clubs and other sports for that matter to be formally registered and have its Executives and a budget.
“This is a very important factor in building a stronger team when it comes to competitive sporting,” the Deputy Premier stressed.
Saki also highlighted that Solomon Islands last year has hosted the one of the biggest and the most successful sporting events in the Pacific – The Pacific Games.
“And now our country has a stadium and the Solomon Islands National Institute of Sports (SINIS) with modern facilities to train athletes to perform competitively.
“These state-of-the-art sporting facilities are big investments for our country and are here in Honiara, which Guadalcanal Sports men and women could access to develop their physical fitness and mentality to perform in whatever sport that they may engage in.
“To access these facilities, all sporting bodies in Guadalcanal Province must affiliate with Guadalcanal Sports Federation,” Saki concluded.
By RAYMOND HULANGA
Solomon Star, Honiara.