By Leslie Tan, Colin Tung, Lim Yong Teck, Jasmine Goh

MCCY Minister Lawrence Wong

Minister Lawrence Wong (third from left) with national sailors at a SpexScholarship event earlier this year. (Photo courtesy of MCCY)

Lawrence Wong, 41, was elected to the Singapore Parliament at the 2011 general election. A member of the governing People’s Action Party (PAP), he is currently the Minister, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and Second Minister, Ministry of Communications and Information.

Mr Wong studied at Haig Boys’ School, Tanjong Katong Secondary Technical School (the school was renamed Tanjong Katong Secondary School in 1993) and Victoria Junior College, before going on to the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the United States where he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics in 1993. He subsequently obtained a Master of Arts degree in Economics at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, and also a Master of Public Administration degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

In an exclusive interview with Red Sports, he talks about National Service, foreign sports talent, the S.League, the Sports Hub, sports funding, ActiveSG, sports trends, and his personal best times for running.

Leslie Tan, Red Sports: What is the economic value of the sports industry today? How many jobs are there in the sports industry? How does it compare to previous years?

Minister Wong: We have no specific figures. We’re only beginning to look at the sporting industry and then putting together the value added and the jobs so it’s a fairly new effort. But we don’t have specific figures that we track now but we’re developing the indicators.

Looking at anecdotal evidence, the sporting industry has grown. You see more sporting events, more companies that are based in Singapore. I believe Converse has a global planning and supply management HQ based here, World Sport Group has a global HQ based in Singapore. Nike, I think, has an affiliate that’s based here too, doing global planning and logistics. So the industry has grown: the events and the companies and, certainly, the number of young people taking up sports-related courses in polytechnics and universities have increased.

That we track and we have a total of about 500 graduates coming out from polytechnics and universities. And they’re getting good jobs in the sporting industry, some work in these companies, some work in the NSAs (National Sports Associations) as sport administrators so, overall, the ecosystem is much larger than what it’s used to be.

Leslie Tan: To put that in perspective, how does the arts industry compare to the sports industry in terms of economic value and jobs?

Minister Wong: Similarly, we don’t have numbers so it’s very hard to compare. But we do get this question from time to time.

The arts people will look to sports, and particularly this year when we had the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, and say, ‘Are you spending too much time in sports and neglecting the arts?’

Then the sports people will turn to me and say, ‘Hey, look, please don’t neglect the sports and spend so much time playing music.’ So we hear that feedback.

I think, obviously, it’s natural that the different groups want to make sure that they’re not neglected. And they’re not. Both are growing in their own right. Whether it’s arts and culture or sports, both are growing.

When we look across the landscape, whether it is arts, culture, heritage or sports, these are all areas which we can bring people together and help Singaporeans lead more fulfilling lives. So our purpose is to enlarge that entire space.

Leslie Tan: Do you see a hierarchy? Do you see Singaporeans putting more premium on music or film or art or sports?

Minister Wong: I think it’s hard to generalize. Some appreciate both as much, equally, but, certainly, there will be some who would favour one over the other because of their own personal interests, so it’s hard to say that, as a society, we have a pecking order and say that this takes priority over the other.

I would regard both as equally important and that’s why they’re both under one ministry, and we’re promoting both equally.

Leslie Tan: This is about Vision 2030. I read all the comments submitted and what came through was people wanting to learn to play, wanting space to play sports. Can we put a number to that in terms of whether it’s easier to play, whether there’s more space to play today?

Minister Wong: I would say that there are certainly more spaces to play and that, if you compare over the years, has improved, and we will continue to have more spaces because we will put in place a Sports Facilities Master Plan (SFMP).

And our objective under that SFMP is to ensure that virtually all Singaporeans will have access to a sporting facility within 10 minutes of their home. So that will be progressively implemented.

The one thing that we’ve started is the Sports Hub, and already with it this year alone, we have so far, since it opened, attracted more than a million visitors there.

With all the plans to have sports facilities all over Singapore, not just the Sports Hub but at different levels, I think the sports infrastructure will improve considerably in the coming years.

Leslie Tan: It is already very good.

Minister Wong: It’s already very good, but from time to time you will hear feedback that you can’t get enough courts or the courts are full. So there are some areas where I think we can continue to expand through the SFMP.

The other thing we’re doing is to make available school sports facilities under the Dual Use Scheme (DUS). If you look at the community, beyond what Sport Singapore has, in fact, there’s a lot of sporting facilities in our schools, far better than most countries. And it should not be limited to just school use, because if it is just limited to schools, then it would be under-utilised.

So, one of our plans is to expand significantly these DUS facilities. For new schools, it’s straightforward: we’ll make sure that all new schools are built and designed with dual use in mind because you need to make some provisions to ensure that the design and facilities allow for dual use.

For existing schools, it’s a little bit trickier, because you need to put in some provisions. So that is something we’re working towards. By this year, we will have perhaps 10 to 15 new indoor halls and school fields made available under the DUS (to the public) and we’ll progressively extend it to more schools.

“So that’s one thing that ActiveSG hopes to address: programmes that you can participate in and sports that you can enjoy” – an interview with Lawrence Wong (Part 5)

““We give funding beyond athletes who can get medals” – an interview with Lawrence Wong (Part 6)

On sporting trends and impact of cable sports television – an interview with Lawrence Wong (Part 7)

“I ran my first marathon in 1997. I have done two” – an interview with Lawrence Wong (Part 8)

On National Service and sporting heroes – an interview with Lawrence Wong (Part 1)

On foreign sports talent – an interview with Lawrence Wong (Part 2)

On S.League and racial lines in sports – an interview with Lawrence Wong (Part 3)