QOC general secretary Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani
Sports Reporter/Doha
The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) yesterday launched “Sport Sector Strategy 2011-2016” that highlights the main goals that the country aims to achieve by 2016, depending on an accurate analysis for the current situation of sports sector.
The Sport Sector Strategy, is one of the fourteen sector strategies within the National Development Strategy (2011-2016) initially launched by His Highness the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on March 28, 2011.
The strategy, prepared in cooperation with the General Secretariat for Development Planning by a work team from the concerned government authorities.
Based on six important domains including Sports Facilities, Media Promotion, Sports Culture and Awareness, Development of Athletes’ Careers, Sports Management and Hosting the International Championships, the strategy reflects Qatar’s concern on issues of sustainable development of its community.
Launching the strategy at a special ceremony held last night, QOC general secretary Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said: “The Sport Sector Strategy aims to achieve the ambitious goals which will be factors of empowerment for other sectors.”
Qatar’s National Vision 2030 defines the long-term outcomes for the country and provides a framework by which national strategies and plans can be developed. Qatar aims to be an advanced society capable of sustaining its development and providing a high standard of living for its populace.
The three main outcomes defined in the strategy are: increasing the participation of local community in sport and physical activity, enhancing and integrating planning for the general and specialized sports facilities and increasing and enhancing the process of building, managing and improving the performance of sports talents.
Further to the enhancement of general health, the strategy focused on the necessity to provide enabling environment for sports and physical activity through the achievement of the outcome “Enhancing and integration of planning for general and specialized sports facilities.”
In addition to that, the strategy took into account the balance between the needs of society and the needs of the environment. The QOC has launched the first system in the world to assess the sustainability of sports facilities, signing a memorandum of understanding with the Gulf Organization for Research and Development to cooperate in building sustainable sports facilities through the adoption of the Qatar Sustainability Assessment System (QSAS).
“The three outcomes identified by the strategy are fully consistent with the QOC goals,” he explained, with a mention of two main axes – to achieve performances by elite athletes in Arab, Asian or Olympic Games and to promote the culture of sports and physical activity in the Qatari society.
“In line with the country’s direction to focus on investment in human capital, the QOC has accorded considerable attention to building citizens’ capabilities through scholarship programs for employees and talented athletes,” said Sheikh Saoud.
The QOC general secretary also believes Qatar’s successful bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022 will bring more positives to the country.
“Hosting the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup will positively reflect on accelerating the development of the state of Qatar,” he said, adding that the programmes and projects carried out by the QOC, working together with its partners from other government agencies, private sector and civil society institutions will pave the way towards achieving the results of the Sports Sector Strategy.