The Ministry of Home Affairs and Guadalcanal Province have progressed their discussion on the proposed sports facility earmarked for the province. On Friday, October 11th, 2024, officials from the respective offices met to further the discussion about the proposed site and other initial but key project management stages for this proposed project.
The Guadalcanal Province has recommended a site at the Mamara area which the officials also visited after their consultations. The province perceives the area as ideal as it matches up with its plans to accommodate its provincial headquarters west of the current Mamara project area and other proposed growth centers in its eastern area (LDA area).
The Ministry of Home Affairs (under its sports Division) ensures that all its projects take an integrated approach, ensuring the success of the project merges with SIG priority areas and also with the key development goals of its stakeholders and beneficiaries in this case, Guadalcanal province.
The project also calls for a Public Private Partnership approach where key stakeholders collaborate to realize the potential that this project has and can offer for Guadalcanal province and its people.
Sports and recreation are attached strongly to the health of individuals, and their positive impacts can contribute to our national fight against NCDs and health defects. Further, nation-building through sports is an aspect that needs more attention and investment nationally. Career paths and high performance grow our sportsmen and women to monetize the expected future we prepare for them. The ministry is also redirecting sports from a physical and entertainment perspective to an industry setting, seeing the monetary value of sports as a form of employment, national fame, and social security for our youths and sports individuals.
The next stage of the project is to confirm the location before survey teams, environment assessment, and UXO clearance are done on-site. The proposed project will be a football field and a designed stadium attached to it. The field and stadium are expected to accommodate field and track sporting events at high capacity.
As part of implementing its National Sports and Recreation Policy (2021-2035), the Ministry of Home Affairs is enhancing efforts to decentralize and diversify sports accessibility to our provinces through its national provincial sports projects. It is the Ministry’s practical desire to see our provinces grooming capacities through these facilities and embark on the supply chain, sourcing high-performance athletes from the provinces to further their capacity building at SINIS and prepare them for opportunities internally and abroad.
In July 2023, the Ministry handed over the newly built Football Stadium at Aligegeo to the Malaita provincial government. The Ministry also has current projects in Noro Western Province and anticipated ones for Shortland and Choiseul, and other prospective ones for our other provinces.
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-GCU
