…Minister Ramson stresses on importance of Sports Policy

By Rawle Toney 

A revision of the draft National Sports Policy is currently on-going with the relevant stakeholders, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr, told Chronicle Sport yesterday.

Minister Ramson, speaking on the sidelines of his second community outreach in Agricola, was adamant that seeing the implementation of the country’s first National Sports Policy is of utmost priority for the Dr Irfaan Ali government.

Ramson told this publication that he is personally working to ensure that the long-overdue document reflects the mission and the direction of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.

According to Ramson, “once that’s done and we amend the Sports Policy to reflect the Ministry’s direction, then we’re going to share it with the Associations once again, have a working session with them. When we start doing that, we’re going to able to tailor and make whatever modification of the sports policy that is sensible as part of the consultation process. Then that goes up to the Cabinet Sub-Committee, then to the Cabinet for it to be laid over in Parliament at the appropriate time.”

During an interaction with the Sports Media on August 15, Ramson relayed that the implementation of the National Sports Policy will be part of the critical areas for sports during his tenure as the Minister responsible for sports in Guyana.

Ramson has inherited a document that has been in the ‘draft state’ by both the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government, prior to 2015 and the former APNU+AFC Government.

Nonetheless, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport said he will ensure the National Sports Policy is passed in the National Assembly, since the document is too important to the future of our country’s athletes and the administering of sports in Guyana, to be on the sidelines.

With his Ministry receiving an allocation of $805.3M from this year’s National budget, Ramson said much of what he intends to do will be guided by the policy, further reiterating its importance.