Chairman of the National Sports Council (NSC) Joe Sika has highlighted the significance of their trip to China to attend the Training in Facilities Management Course as an ‘eye opener’ for some of his members delegation.
The Chair NSC, Joe Sika and Counsellor Gong Rui of the Chinese Embassy, briefed the media on the facility training trip to China at the National Stadium on Thursday.
He thanked the Chinese Embassy in Solomon Islands for organizing their trip to China.
As the head of the delegation Sika expressed their experience during the course and working with the NSC to implement the key learnings learnt and how to manage and implement here in the country
“First, I want to thank the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and our host in China Shandong Vocational College.
“We were lectured by the people who are dedicated to their work and the quality of the lectures that we had really good,” he said.
Sika said they visited some sporting facilities that are not open to the public and a lot of Chinese people have not been even in there.
“But we were quite to have a privilege to go there.
“And we have the quality of people that are available to teach and train us when we were there,” he said.
“We were there to train on management of sports facilities, but we also look at the lectures through design concept to understand the different structures of the sporting venues that are built.
“Then we look at the how to use the facilities, management side of it, and maintenance of the facilities,” Sika said.
The NSC Chair said the trip enabled them to see different sporting facilities in China.
He said in Solomon Islands they have a limited facilities with the types of sport facilities in the country because they don’t have much.
“But in China, under the training, we have visited facilities for primary schools, Junior high schools and Universities sporting facilities, including a community recreational facilities and competition and high performance facilities.
“These are different types of sporting facilities and have a look, and interact well with lectures and ask questions since having the theoretical and a lot of discussions. But to look at the facilities and talk with the people who manages the facilities was an amazing thing to learn and share together,” he said.
“Some of the facilities we don’t have here especially the Winter Olympics facilities. It was good to visit and have a look at them as well.
“For me, I learn to differentiate the different types of facilities and the different purposes that they serve,” he said.
“And I think it is important in our context here. Because now we have new facilities like the National Stadium is a competition facility compare to the East Wing of the King George VI School Stadium, more like a training facility and SINIS is like a high performance school.
“So therefore, I learn how to differentiate different sporting facilities that are meant for different purposes,” he said.
“Even though I was head of this committee, I don’t really understand the importance of different facilities.
“But now I come to understand how to manage different facilities and the maintenance side of it as well,” Sika said.
The trips aimed to provide a platform where senior sporting officials in the country to learn and experience themselves during the course and working with the NSC to implement the key learnings learnt and how to manage and implement here in Solomon Islands
Participants also learned about the culture of the Peoples Republic of China, different Parks as a recreational set-up for physical health, schools Physical Education (P.E) – Primary and Secondary
The team also learn on the culture of planning and preparation in Chinese dialect.
They also learnt during the Lectures for seven days a week and found them awesome in presenting their presentations.
Also, part of the delegation at the Facilities management training event were Christian Nieng, Executive Director of the National Hosting Authority (NHA) and Dickson Ramota Riikwao, Assistant Turf Manager.
By RAYMOND HULANGA
Solomon Star, Honiara.