Uzbek leader holds meeting to discuss development of sports

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 20 September, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting devoted to issues of physical culture and sports development.

As it is known, in order to reform and accelerate the development of the sphere, the Head of the state on March 5 this year signed a Decree “On measures for radical improvement of the public administration system in the field of physical culture and sports”. According to the Decree, the Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan was organized on the basis of corresponding state committee and its territorial subdivisions, its tasks and powers were expanded.

A new system is introduced for improving the selection of athletes, which began to give the first results.

At the Asian Games held in August-September in Indonesia, athletes of Uzbekistan won 70 – 21 gold, 24 silver and 25 bronze medals. The fifth place taken by the country in terms of the number of gold medals became the best result in the history of Uzbekistan sports.

– We are proud of our athletes who have made a huge contribution to enhancement of the authority and glory of Uzbekistan in the international sports arena. At the same time, not being limited to success in higher sports, we need to pay great attention to mass sports, – said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

At the meeting, important tasks for further development of this sphere were identified.

It was noted that work on attraction of the population, especially youth, to physical culture and mass sports is not organized at a proper level, access of people of all ages to sports objects of education institutions in extracurricular time is not provided.

In addition, it is necessary to organize sports centers for attracting people to mass sports on the basis of unused private facilities, which will provide services on a preferential basis.

In this regard, the Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports was tasked to take measures on organizing sections in sports facilities of education institutions and unused facilities together with the Youth Union and relevant ministries.

Also instructions were given on increasing the number of sports championships at district, city, regional and republican levels, encouraging winners with cash prizes at the expense of the Youth Union.

In addition, responsible persons were given instructions on conducting “Alpomish” and “Barchinoy” contests for involvement of the population, especially youth, to sports in the form of championships and rewarding the winners with badges in three degrees.

Lack of attention for conducting mass sports and gymnastic events in enterprises, education institutions and parks was noted. It was emphasized that it is necessary to organize regular programs and social videos on TV in order to promote benefits of such exercises for health.

– It is necessary to develop a five-year national concept to promote sports in our country. Its main direction and result should become a call of the population to regular physical training, prevention of disease through this, adoption of a healthy lifestyle and prolonging people’s lives, – said President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The fact that due to weak activity of federations it is not possible to achieve good results in international tournaments in equestrian sports, swimming, fencing, shooting and team sports was criticized. In this regard, instructions were given to put into operation until 2020 the Olympic training centers in Samarkand, Jizzakh, Kashkadarya, Namangan and Tashkent regions, to use China’s experience in their activities, that is, to introduce a system in which athletes train purposefully in the center, constantly living there.

Responsible managers were instructed to critically study the activities of all sports federations, radically improve their work, especially in direction of selection, increase responsibility of management personnel.

Lack of qualified coaches, particularly in winter sports, was noted. The Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports has been instructed to improve coaches training and simplify a mechanism of issuing licenses to them.

Attention was also paid to issues of construction of children’s sports facilities, using modern energy-saving technologies.

In the current year, 56 sports facilities are planned to be built at the expense of the Fund for Development of Physical Culture and Sports, with a total amount of 362 billion UZS. However, as of September 10, 113 billion UZS were spent for construction and installation works. There is a lag in this respect in Syrdarya, Navoi, Tashkent regions and in the city of Tashkent.

Relevant ministries and organizations were given instructions on completing in time the construction and repair of sports facilities, as well as to form the targeted program of the Fund for Development of Physical Culture and Sports for 2019.

At the meeting, the issue of preparation for Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 was also discussed. Tasks for strengthening the athletes’ training for obtaining a large number of licenses and worthy performance at the games were determined.

Reports of responsible officials were heard on activities carried out for eliminating existing problems in the sphere, wide coverage of the population with mass sports, further development of professional sports.