Estijabah key to sport development, says Al Nusuf

Manama, Mar. 23 (BNA): Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) secretary general Mohammed Al Nusuf asserted the keenness of Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa to develop sports in Bahrain by setting up a number of pioneer initiatives, including the national youth and sports development programme ‘Estijabah’. Esijabah, AKA ‘Response’, was launched by Shaikh Nasser , representative of His Majesty the King for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, and Supreme Council for Youth and Sports Chairman, last year in April. This first-of-its-kind programme, which mainly aims to further boost the youth and sports sectors in the kingdom. It is regarded as one of several programmes recommended by Shaikh Nasser in recent years. Al Nusuf commended the step taken by Shaikh Nasser to launch Estijabah, and affirmed the importance of such initiative, which looks to optimize the investment of sports facilities in accordance with an integrated plan that contributes to enhancing the financial resources of youth and sports sectors. It also looks for new sources of financing, and is considered a distinguished national project. To activate the investment process for the benefit of clubs and national federations and all youth and sports bodies in the Kingdom. Al Nusuf affirmed that the program was launched in line with the vision of Shaikh Nasserin an attempt to invest the state-owned sports facilities and create new fixed income sources for the benefit of the sports sector in general. He expressed his confidence in the success of this initiative, which was blessed by the wise leadership, as well as the follow-up and implementation, which was carefully selected by Shaikh Nasser to manage this program. The Secretary General said that the main goal of the BOC is to create an ideal competitive environment and support all sports federations in accordance with the available potentials toboost sports in the country. He stressed that the aspirations of sports institutions in Bahrain, including the Bahrain Olympic Committee, are noticeably high, and that everyone should focus on achieving the goals that lead to the desired development of Bahraini sports.