The Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance – Hon Dr Rama Sithanen

The Minister of Youth and Sports – Hon Devanand Rittoo

The Minister of Information Communication Technology – Hon Ashraf Dulull

PAS – Mr Daby

President of CNOM – Mr Phillipe Hao Thyn Voon

President of Trust fund for Excellence in Sports – Mr Desire Tsang

CEO of Trust Fund – Mr Michael Glover

Mrs Maryan Joyjob, President of CNSF

Board Members of the MSC

President of Federations

Distinguished Guests Ladies and Gentleman

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all tonight for the 24^th Edition of the National Sports Award of the Mauritius Sports Council here at the Grand Bay International Conference Centre. This is the fifth time that I have the privilege to address you these few words of sporting spirit and fraternity to all the sports practitioners, guests and the public at large.

 At the very outset, let me; ladies and gentlemen salute a stalwart, a great personality in the field of politics, someone who is shaping the financial destiny of Mauritius effectively and positively and someone who is a great fan of sports. My friends, I am referring to not other than our Chief Guest tonight, Dr Rama Sithanen, our Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. Let me remind all of you present here tonight, that he was here, on the very same platform of the National Sports Award two years ago and he had promised few interesting things to the sports community. A man of his words, he has kept his promises. He has introduced the Corporate Social Responsibility programme whereby firms are coming with specific programmes to meet the demands and requirements of the sports clubs and practitioners.

 He also briefly spoke about the National Lottery on the very same platform. Today it is a reality. With the introduction of the National lottery, we are all aware that funds generated will be put at the disposal of Sports Authorities and the sports community for the betterment and improvement of infrastructures together with the continuous development of sports in Mauritius. We can proudly say that no finance Minister has helped the sports community to such an extent and we congratulate him for all the good measures with regards to sports in his recent budget speech. Thank you very much the Vice-Prime Minister & Finance Minister for being among us tonight.

 Dear friends of the sports community we are here tonight to honour the great performances of our outstanding athletes during the year 2009. You have made Mauritius proud by your seriousness, dedication, hard work, commitment and love for the different sports disciplines you are actively involved with. We have witnessed a complete transformation of the sports landscape of Mauritius during the current year 2009. The jeux de la francophonie in Lebanon, the four jeux d’Afrique which Mauritius hosted namely in swimming, athletics, boxing and weightlifting, jeux de l’avenir and jeux de l’espoir helped us get a good feel of the talent of our sportsman and sportswoman. All these games proved to be a good reap for our athletes not only in terms of medals but also excellent performances. Indeed hats off to all of you and thank you for being here tonight.

 Ladies and gentlemen, like the last four years, the year 2009 has been a very fruitful year for the Mauritius Sports Council. This year we have succeeded to bring back a big percentage of the population to exercise and practice sports. With around 90% of Mauritian not practicing any sports activity and with the very high figure of Mauritian suffering from Diabetes, Hyper tension and cardiovascular diseases, at the very start of this year, we started the Campaign “KEEP FIT MAURITIUS” at the August Vollaire Stadium which saw the participation of thousands of Mauritian during a three months programme. It was a huge success.

 In the same trend, few weeks ago, the “Community Based Sports Development Program” was launched at Glen Park Sports Complex. It is still on-going and according to all information from the region, the sport complex is full packed with people everyday for the different activities.

 We have continued to reward the young athletes with the MSC MILO AWARD every month as an encouragement for them. The Nestle Group with their brand “MILO” has been with us for quite sometime now. As regard to our senior athletes, they are rewarded as well every month and as from this year, we have a new sponsor supporting the MSC in this process, the Panagora Company with their very trendy drink “YOP”.

 We have sustained our effort to improve and upgrade the infrastructures under the purview of the Mauritius Sports Council. As you are all aware that the World Cup 2010 will be held very near to Mauritius, we have contemplated to improve our infrastructural facilities so that big football nations can avail of same if they choose Mauritius as their warming up site. I personally took up the challenge to transform the turf of the Auguste Vollaire Stadium. Today it has become the best playing surface in Mauritius. I take this opportunity to thank the staff of “August Vollaire Stadium” for their hard work and co-operation shown during the maintenance period. This upgrading process will be extended other sites. We also have plans to improve the Germain Commarmond Stadium at Bambous.

 As far as Federations are concerned, throughout the year the MSC has continued to extend its financial support to them.

It is almost 4 years I took office in January 2006. After taking stock of the various activities and administrative aspect of the MSC, I realized that the sport council was in need of a totally new mindset. The workload of the council was bound to increase significantly and the office environment for our staff did not meet the new aspiration of the council.  After a couple of years of savings in our budget, last year the offices were totally renovated  to improve the working environment as well as providing a conducive atmosphere for our visitors at Belle Rose.

The MSC needed to work on benchmarks and its processes had to be standardized and documented to provide a better service to its customers both internal and external. To this effect, we managed to become the first sports organization in this part of the world to be awarded the ISO 9001-2000 quality management system. Therefore, we had to organize training for our staff to get accustomed to these new work processes. Not only that, we also embarked on a sensitization campaign on new work ethics. Myself as a professional in this field, I can assess today that we have a very efficient staff performing with a standard of professionalism. All these have led to the MSC to emerge with a new vision and we can state proudly that we have been able to implement and integrate this new vision in all our endeavors at the council.

 In all these processes, our handymen were not left aside. Over the years, the MSC was managing 20 sports infrastructure. As at today, the MSC is managing 38 infrastructural sites and 10 SSS gymnasiums under the MOU signed by the Ministry of Youth & Sports and the Ministry of Education, Culture & Human Resources.

 Moreover, ladies & gentlemen, when I took office the MSC did not have a website. Soon, we got to this task and a modern and interactive communication platform was designed. During the same year, 2006, the address www.mauritiussportscouncil.com was a reality.

 Also as part of our objective to manage sports activities in a better way in Mauritius, we have organized training sessions for members and staff of sports federations. In fact we have tried to empower all federations with training in Good Governance, Sports Marketing, conflict resolution skills, communication among others. It is to be noted that the number of federations have increased from 25 to 38 over the years. The MSC is also helping these federations in terms of office spaces in our sports complexes as well as making provision for office equipments and machines. The administrative secretaries of federations are remunerated by the Mauritius Sports Council.

With regard to the future activities of MSC for 2010, with the support of the Ministry of youth & sport and in particular the Minister Hon. Devanand Rittoo, the future of MSC is deemed to be brighter. We have set several new objectives for the coming years. As mentioned earlier, the “KEEP FIT MAURITIUS” being appreciated & accepted by the people in the East of Mauritius, it will now be extended to several new locations and ultimately reach out the whole island.

 The “Community Based Development Program” which was a huge success at Glen Park will also be extended to different places all over Mauritius. In doing so, the public at large will be given the opportunity to practice at least one sports activity to enjoy a sound health. All these years we had to manage these and other similar activities within our budgetary constraints. I am glad to inform you that the projects I have enumerated for 2010 will be blessed by a renowned Bank who will provide its financial support.

 We also want to contribute to the Government Manifesto as mentioned by the Minister of Finance, Hon Dr Rama Sithanen in his budget speech that is to use sports for social mobility.

 Ladies and Gentleman, there are always new avenues to prospect. In my opinion, one such avenue is Sports-Tourism and “Evenmentiel”. Destinations such as South Africa, Dubai, Australia, Malaysia and others have already set -up same. We have the natural resources and perfect landscape in Mauritius for such a sector to emerge. We have to seriously think about positioning Mauritius as a Sports Destination which in return can open new possibilities for our athletes to recycle themselves at the end of their sports career and earn a very decent living out of it.

 Therefore ladies and gentlemen we can say that Sports in Mauritius is on the ascending with the collaboration and participation of all stakeholders. We are glad to note the positive synergy created by the Minister of youth and sports Hon Devanand Rittoo in this endeavour.

 Before ending let me congratulate in advance all the nominees for this edition and wish you all good luck.

I would like to thank all those who have helped us in organizing tonight’s event especially all the staff and Board members of the MSC and the members of the Panel Committee and Higher Committee.  

Ladies and gentlemen tonight’s event would not have been possible without the active contribution of our sponsors namely Mauritius Telecom, Euro CRM, Sofap Ltd, Nestle Products Ltd Milo, Panagora Marketing Yop, Airports of Mauritius Ltd, State Informatics Ltd, Gold Crest Hotel, Neel Industries, PADCO, Furnicon Sports Flooring Systems, Radio Plus and IBL Health Care Medical Trading.

Let me also thank the Minister of Youth and Sports Hon Devanand Rittoo for his support and guidance throughout the year.

Last but not least our heartfelt thanks to the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Hon Dr Rama Sithanen for his enabling strategies to enhance sports at all levels. His presence tonight shows his love and commitment to sports.

I wish you all a pleasant night with us. Thank you.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the process of the continuous change and innovation at the Mauritius Sports Council, this year a new statuette has been created to symbolize the National Sports Award.

 It has been designed by Mr Krishna Lutchoomun, lecturer in Fine Arts at MGI. We take this opportunity to thank him for this fine piece of Art. (Round of Applause).

 It was moulded and crafted by Metal Cast Ltd

 We wish that this statuette be kept standard for all sports award to come.

I now invite the Minister of Youth & Sports, Hon. Devanand Rittoo to unveil the new icon of the National Sports Award.

I invite the Minister for his speech.