Eleven international sports events hosted last year :

US$ 100 m to State coffers from sports

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said that the sports sector contributed US$ 100 million last year to the state coffers by hosting 11 international sports events in Sri Lanka.

The Sports Ministry targets at least US$ 500 million to the country through the sports sector by 2016. New amendments were also introduced in Parliament recently to the Sports Law to raise Sri Lanka’s standard in sports to national and international levels, the Minister told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

After President Mahinda Rajapaksa took office in 2010, the Government had invested almost Rs.10 billion to develop infrastructure facilities in the sports sector.

The Ministry has already launched a national program for the purpose. In addition, the Government has spent a colossal amount of money to develop sports in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces as well.

This is the first time in history where such large amounts of money were allocated to develop the sports sector.

Earlier, the highest budgetary allocation on sports was Rs.300 million while the current provision amounts to nearly Rs. 2.5 billion. This has helped the Ministry to formulate a massive program to develop the sports sector, he said.

The Ministry has already introduced a National Sports Policy. With a Leader such as President Rajapaksa who loves sports and extends full state patronage to improve sports, this is the most appropriate time to invest in sports.

The Ministry has initiated a program to provide a systematic training for athletes at village, district and national levels.