Building Nghe An into one of the 9 strongest sports centers in the country

Comrade Lo Trung Thanh - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism gave an interview to Nghe An Newspaper on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnam Sports Industry (March 27, 1946 - March 27, 2011)

Reporter: Nghe An is a locality that strongly develops mass sports and high-performance sports. Could you briefly summarize those movements?

Comrade Lo Trung Thanh (LTT): In recent years, Nghe An sports have developed quite balancedly between mass sports and performance sports. For mass sports, the movement "All people practice following the example of great Uncle Ho" has been widely developed in all localities and subjects. That is clearly reflected in the indicators: the rate of people participating in regular physical exercise and sports is increasing. 100% of schools in the province have an internal physical education program. The whole province has 860 physical education and sports clubs. These indicators have increased by 5% compared to the whole country, this is a good number.

A vivid manifestation is that every year the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Nghe An cooperates with units to organize sports competitions at all levels, sectors and localities. Notably, the Youth Football Tournament of Nghe An Newspaper Cup, the Football Tournament of Television Cup, competitions of the Military, Civil Affairs, Trade Unions... regularly take place enthusiastically. Since then, organizations, units, businesses and people have become more attached to sports movements.

Regarding high-performance sports, at major competitions such as the World Championships, Asia, Southeast Asia, National... the performance of Nghe An sports has continuously increased, specifically in 2007, there were 49 gold medals, 65 silver medals and 73 bronze medals, then in 2010 the number was 61 gold medals, 86 silver medals, 147 bronze medals. We have provided the Vietnamese Sports Delegation with athletes to participate in the SEA Games and ASIAD, these athletes have brought home gold, silver and bronze medals for Vietnamese sports. Taekwondo won gold medals at the World Youth Championships, Pencasilat won gold medals at the Southeast Asian Games, track and field walking broke the world record... At the 2010 National Sports Festival, Nghe An won 52 medals (11 gold medals, 11 silver medals, 30 bronze medals), ranking 16th out of 66 provinces, cities and sectors.

Athletes practice.

PV: What difficulties is Nghe An sports facing, comrade?

Comrade LTT: The current difficulty of the Sports sector is that wards and communes still do not have specialized sports officers. The facilities serving sports activities are generally still poor and outdated. Many districts currently do not have stadiums, and some units do not really care or invest in sports activities. The investment and attention of the districts is clearly reflected in the annual performance results of those units, specifically, Quynh Luu from the previous congress ranked 3rd in the province and now has risen to the first position...

The process of investing in facilities and nutrition for performance sports is still slow and low, some facilities have been invested since 1995, equipment is lacking and outdated. The direction and determination of investment in key sports has not received high consensus. In addition to football, the socialization of sports in other performance sports as well as investment in modern training facilities for these sports have not received due attention. Another problem is that the attraction of sports talent in our province is still limited and inadequate, there is no solution to solve the output for athletes and coaches after retirement.

PV: Could you please tell us about Nghe An sports strategy in the coming time?

Comrade LTT: Through the Campaign "All people practice following the example of great Uncle Ho", develop a comprehensive and extensive sports movement in residential areas, agencies and units. Take care of both mass sports and high-performance sports, develop national sports. Build Nghe An into one of the 9 strong sports centers of the country. Focus on developing sports included in the competition program at the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), Asian Games (ASIAD), Olympic Games where Nghe An has strengths, with low investment but high efficiency. Host national and international sports competitions. High-performance sports have developed steadily (about 23 sports). By 2020, high-performance sports will be in the top 10 provinces and cities nationwide; The rate of people participating in regular physical exercise and sports reached 33-35%. Complete infrastructure to attract investment in the North Central Region Sports Complex project in Nghi Phong commune, Nghi Loc district. Focus on investing and upgrading infrastructure and equipment for the Provincial Sports Training Center and districts and towns, serving the training, practice and competition of high-performance sports. Promote the socialization of sports movements, establish Tennis, Badminton and Martial Arts Federations. In 2011, establish Nghe An Provincial Sports Gifted High School.

PV: Thank you, comrade!

Duc Chuyen -Perform