International Association for Sports Information
An authority in the field of sports information and documentation

ASIAN SPORTS INFORMATION ASSOCIATION
PREPARATORY COMMITTEE
The first sports information organization for Asia

Bulletin No.1

Sports information has quickly developed with today's modern technology, which has also brought great changes to every aspect of sports. We hope that readers will offer your ideas and suggestions to make this Bulletin more readable and more colourful.

On the occasion of first publication of this Bulletin, I would like to give my special thanks to the Hong Kong Sports Development Board and Mr Li Tak Nang, the Secretary General of the Preparatory Committee for their effort in bringing this publication into being.

Professor Zhao Yaping
Convener
A.S.I.A. Preparatory Committee

The International Association for Sports Information is a worldwide organization which encourages international, national and regional initiatives in relation to the management and dissemination of sport information. This Bulletin is the result of an initiative by IASI members in the Asian Region to provide a vehicle which will facilitate the exchange of sport information and promote cooperation amongst those who work in the field of sport information.

On behalf of IASI I would like to congratulate everyone who has contributed to and produced the Bulletin, it is an exciting and extremely worthwhile initiative.

Nerida Clarke
IASI President

In 31 March 1998, 17 delegates from seven Asian countries and regions agreed in a special meeting that a preparatory committee should be formed for the future establishment of an Asian Sports Information Association (A.S.I.A.).

Summoned and chaired by Professor Zhao Yaping with the attendance of President Mrs Nerida Clarke and Secretary-Treasurer Mr Albert Remans of the International Association for Sports Information (IASI), the one day meeting ended with several key resolutions:

• The Preparatory Committee should consist of a convener, a secretary general and regional coordinators for the region of East Asia, South-east and South Asia and West Asia.
• Professor Zhao Yaping was elected Convener of the Committee.
• The Hong Kong Sports Development Board, represented by Mr Li Tak Nang, was appointed Secretariat of the Committee.
• The Secretariat should coordinate necessary foundation work for the establishment of an Asian Sports Information Association, hopefully during the next IASI Congress in 2001
• A publication should be produced as a means of enhancing communications and understanding among the potential regional sports information community.

Professor Zhao - Yaping China
Mr Ma Tie - China
Mr Wang Ru Ying - China
Mr Abdelmalik Elismail - Saudi Arabia
Mr Saad Al-Hyan Saudi - Arabia
Dr Rashed Al-Heraiwel - Saudi Arabia
Mr Falh Al-Teraify - Saudi Arabia
Mr Fatollah Mosayebi - Iran
Ms Maria Graca Coelho - Macau
Mr Tsai Min Chung - Chinese Taipei
Mr Lee Ching Hsiang - Chinese Taipei
Mr Kazunobu P. Fujimoto - Japan
Mr Tomomi Furusaka - Japan
Professor Takahiko Nishijima - Japan
Mr Takayuki Hata - Japan
Mr Li Tak Nang - Hong Kong
Ms Grace Lee - Hong Kong

In attendance

Mrs Nerida Clarke - President, IASI
Mr Albert Remans - Secretary-Treasurer, IASI

The Preparatory Committee

Convener

Professor Zhao Ya Ping

Vice-President for Asia, IASI, China

Secretary

Mr Li Tak Nang

Hong Kong Sports Development Board, Hong Kong

Regional Coordinator - East Asia

Professor Masaru Ikeda

Sasakawa Sports Foundation, Japan

Regional Coordinator - East Asia

Mr Takayuki Hata

Nagasaki University, Japan

Regional Coordinator - South-east & South Asia

Ms Selina Khoo Phaik Lin

University of Malaya, Malaysia

Regional Coordinator - West Asia

Mr Abdel Malik I. Elismail

General Presidency For Youth Welfare, Saudi Arabia

Sport Policy of Malaysia

The National Sports Policy for Malaysia was approved by the Cabinet in 1988. The policy provides a basic guideline for both elite sport as well as sport for all. Elite sport is for high performance athletes and its aim is to produce champions and winners. Sports for all, on the other hand, is concerned with the masses. It proposes to develop a healthy and productive society by encouraging more people to participate in physical activity. The National Sports Council is responsible for elite sport, while the Sports Division of the Youth and Sports Ministry is responsible for sport for all.

The National Sports Council (NSC) aims to improve the standard of high performance sports in the country. Set up in 1971, the NSC prepares the national teams for international competition. In addition to that, the NSC works closely with national sports bodies and the School Sports Council to identify new talent. There are also long-term sports development programmes.

The objective of the Youth and Sports Ministry is to provide opportunities for the public to take part in sports. The ministry started with just a Youth Department which was set up under the Ministry of Social Welfare in 1953. After independence in 1957, a Culture Department was established under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Realizing the importance of these two departments in nation building, the government combined them together with sports to form the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports on the 3 May 1964. On 20 May 1987, culture was put under the portfolio of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism. The ministry then became known as the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Selina Khoo
Regional Coordinator

Oceania Sport Information Centre

Flashback
The idea of setting up the Oceania Sport Information Centre was instigated by the National Sport Information Centre of Australia (NSIC). In June 1989 Mrs Nerida Clarke, Director of the NSIC, put forward a proposal to the Oceania Olympic committees (ONOC) meeting in Melbourne to provide sports information services to selected persons and organization in the Oceania Region. This proposal was supported by a survey of sporting organizations in the Oceania Region. Although the proposal was well received and recognized by ONOC it did not proceed at that time because of insufficient funding.

In 1995 the issue was again brought up by the Australian Sports Commission in discussions with the Fiji Ministry of Youth Employment Opportunities and Sports regarding the possibilities of locating a Regional Sport and PE Information Centre in Fiji. Proposals were put to UNESCO via the International Council for Sports, Science and Physical Education for some seed funding for the Centre. In 1996 UNESCO agreed in principle to provide US$25,000 toward the establishment of the Centre.

In October 1996 a meeting of key stakeholders in a regional sport information centre was held in Fiji in conjunction with the Oceania Sports Development Workshop to discuss the location and operation on the Centre. As a result of this meeting it was proposed to locate the centre in Suva Fiji within the library of the University of the South Pacific.

In December 1996 the IOC during a meeting in Cancun Mexico accepted the proposal. The IOC through its Olympic Solidarity programme made a commitment to fund the Centre for two years.

The Present
Since its opening in August 1997, the Oceania Sport Information Centre (OSIC) has slowly developed its resources and services to meet the needs of its clients. The Centre has had to overcome certain problems in its attempt to attract members of the Oceania National Olympic committees to utilize the services. One of the major problems that OSIC staff has to face is the geographical location of ONOC member countries.

Accessing clients in such a large region, which is mostly covered by ocean, is quite difficult. This is compounded by the lack of modern information technology within the National Olympic Committees (NOC) offices. In order to publicize the Centre, brochures and information packages were sent to all NOC's. Unfortunately, due to administrative problems within the NOC's, information about the Centre did not filter down to the different sports federations. To overcome this problem, visits had to be made to the different countries where meetings were held with NOC members to discuss the function of the information centre.

For the past year OSIC and ONOC staff have continued to promote the Centre throughout the regions. This has resulted in an increase in the number of requests received and processed by the Centre from 37 during the first few months to an average of 133 requests for each month of 1998. NOC's are also experiencing many new changes in information technology. The majority of the offices now has e-mail and access to the Internet. This has greatly improved lines of communication within the region and as a result we are receiving more requests through e-mail.

Looking Ahead
The IOC has verbally agreed to continue funding the Centre. This will be a great boost to sports men and sports women who are struggling to keep up with the rest of the world with the latest innovations and development in sports.

Albert Miller
Oceania Sport Information Centre

The Australian Sports Science Directory has recently been placed on the Internet in a much more searchable format.

The Directory previously issued in hard copy and as a static file on the Internet is now online in a database format which allows searching by Name of Researcher/Sports Scientist, Sport, Area of Research, Services provided by the researcher/scientist and Location of the person within Australia.

The address for the Australian Sports Science Directory is: www.ausport.gov.au/ozspsci.html

Nerida Clarke
Director, Information Services
Australian Sports Commission

CHINA
Dictionary of Sport Science

A Chinese Dictionary of Sport Science comprising about 1,500 entries of terms covering some 20 different sport disciplines is set to be published this year.

In view of the fact that people in different parts of the world may have different understanding and use different terminology for the same subject matter, the dictionary is designed to standardize sports science terms and their meaning.

After almost three years effort of more than a hundred sports scholars and scientists from Mainland China and Hong Kong, the dictionary is expected to be widely circulated in Mainland China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore and among Chinese speaking professionals in other countries.

Ma Tie
Chinese Sports Information Institute

HONG KONG
Sport Information Seminar Proceedings

Hong Kong's first ever sport information seminar has been held at the Hong Kong Sports Institute in 31 March, 1998.

Over 70 local and overseas participants have shared the IASI-supported occasion with information specialists from North America, Europe, Oceania and Asia. The experts outlined the development of sports information as a profession, the future of this profession, effort in international cooperation and the role of sports information in major sporting events.

Complimentary copies of Proceedings of the seminar is available at the Hong Kong Sports Information Centre. You are welcome to contact the Centre at:
Tel: (852) 2681 6130
Fax : (852) 2695 4555
E-mail:

Li Tak Nang
Secretary General
A.S.I.A. Preparatory Committee

JAPAN
First national sport information centre

Japan will have the first National Sport Information Centre in Fall of the year 2000 as one of the three major divisions of the National Institute on Sport Science (NISS) in Tokyo.

The NISS is now under construction with full support from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture. It will be expected to contribute to developing the most comprehensive sport database in Japan and affiliate with the IASI network.

Professor Masaru Ikeda
Regional Coordinator

SAUDI ARABIA
Internet website in progress

Saudi Arabian Sport Information Centre (SASIC) is moving its sport application systems and databases from the current main-frame environment to open system architecture.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia took long steps on the way to join the Internet as a website of the SASIC is being developed.

Abdel Malik Elismail
Director of Information Centre
General Presidency For Youth Welfare

SINGAPORE
New Internet web site

Following the recent celebration of its 25th anniversary, the Singapore Sports Council has launched its Internet web site in which a brief history of sports development in Singapore and details of key programmes of the Council are included.

The address for the Singapore Sports Council is: www.ssc.gov.sg

Readers will be informed of the meeting resolutions and work plans in the next issue of the A.S.I.A Bulletin.

Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading the Bulletin.
We look forward to receiving your feedback and ideas, which we believe would contribute to the improvement of this little publication.

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Asian Sports Information Association Preparatory Committee

Hong Kong Sports Information Centre

Hong Kong Sports Development Board

Yuen Wo Road, Shatin, Hong Kong

Telephone: (852) 2681 6182

Fax: (852) 2692 1940

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