Fitness and sports facilities services should be more accessible to the public - Shamko

28/11/20140 views

The services of the country's physical culture and sports facilities must be made more accessible to the public. An important task in this regard is to increase the information available about what is offered for consumption. This was stated by the Minister of Sport and Tourism, Alexander Shamko, at a meeting of the board of the sports department, held in Borisov (Minsk Region), as reported to BELTA by the press service of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism of Belarus.

The participants of the meeting discussed the measures being taken to improve the efficiency of the republic's physical culture and sports facilities (FSS).

Alexander Shamko believes that the heads of organisations that have large physical culture and sports facilities under their operational management (economic management) are paying insufficient attention to the advertising of services provided. The results of a selective monitoring of the websites of 80 organisations were announced at the board meeting, which showed that one-third of them had irrelevant or outdated content and information.

In this regard, the head of the sports department drew the attention of the board members to the need to eliminate such shortcomings, to provide potential consumers of physical culture and sports services with the maximum amount of information, taking into account the possibilities, primarily of the internet. Alexander Shamko is confident that a high degree of public awareness about FSS services is a direct investment in the future, stimulating an increase in proponents of a healthy lifestyle in the country.

As noted during the meeting of the Ministry of Sport board, a number of problematic issues concerning the operation of sports facilities fall within the competence of local executive and administrative bodies, and in some regions, insufficient attention is paid to this. It was emphasised that courtyard sports grounds in various settlements remain a weak link. Sometimes they do not comply with the functional purpose and safety regulations for conducting physical culture and sports activities, and some require immediate repair.

The meeting discussed existing issues concerning the use of available sports facilities for the development of swimming as a sport. Out of 310 swimming pools, the operation of 48 depends on the hot water supply from city-wide heating networks, which makes it impossible to open swimming departments at such sports facilities. The issue of low utilization of physical culture and sports facilities of children's and youth sports schools was also analyzed. Heads of several organizations were instructed on the need for greater development of services accompanying physical culture and health-improving activities (household, medical, and others).

Despite the existing problems, the collegium of the sports department emphasized that the implementation of the head of state's directives on ensuring the self-recoupment of sports facilities, as well as increasing the efficiency of state property use in the field of physical culture and sports, is proceeding within the framework of a relevant action plan, agreed upon with the Council of Ministers. Disciplines on the operation of physical culture and sports facilities and the marketing of relevant services have been introduced into the curricula of higher education institutions that train specialists in physical culture and sports. Since 2013, advanced training courses for heads of organizations managing large physical culture and sports facilities under their operational management (economic management) have been organized at the Belarusian State University of Physical Culture (BSUFK). Republican seminars on the effective use of state property in the field of physical culture and sports are held annually for heads of relevant organizations.

The Ministry of Sports and Tourism has approved Instructions on the organization and provision of paid physical culture and health-improving services to the public; on the classification of physical culture and sports facilities and their operational requirements; on the procedure for forming and maintaining a register of physical culture and sports facilities, providing information contained therein, and establishing the composition of information entered into this register. In all regions, as early as 2013, an inventory of physical culture and sports facilities was carried out.

News of Belarus (BELTA)