Promoting Leisure and Recreational Activities in Singapore

Singapore is one of the countries striving to promote strong sporting culture in the nation. The Singapore government has believed that sport has the power to inspire, bond, and galvanize people and that more active participation in sport will be building healthy society (MCYS, 2008). Such beliefs have motivated the government to develop constructive policies and legal structures to increase people`s participation in sport and leisure activities. In 2000, the Singapore government established the Committee on Sporting Singapore (CoSS) and started a 10-year project to achieve three strategic pillars, `sport for all`, `sporting excellence, and `developing the sport industry`. The CoSS proposed 40 innovative recommendations to meet the goals. Out of the 40 recommendations, Singapore has already implemented 31; the remaining nine are currently being worked in process. While the project has yielded great success, the government prepared a next stage to continue the current sport development endeavors. In 2006, the government convened the Sporting Culture Committee (SCC) with an objective of `strengthening and transforming Singapore`s sporting culture`. To achieve the targeting goal, the SCC consisted of five sub-committees each examining its own area. After extensive deliberation and consultations with the sub-committees, the SCC coalesced and proposed 23 recommendations. Since the recommendations reflect various aspects such leisure and recreation as well as physical education, athletics, sport science, and the like, the researchers particularly scrutinized seven recommendations which closely concern the leisure and recreation context. Further information of each recommendation such as its background, rationales, guidelines, and implementations, along with the current singapore situations, was discussed. It is believed that this study provides important information for practitioners in other countries when planning and developing a high-level blueprint to guide leisure and recreation development efforts in their countries.