Cabinet aims to launch new sports ministry in August 2025

Taipei, Oct. 17 (CNA) After two months of planning and consultations, the Executive Yuan on Thursday finalized plans to upgrade the Sports Administration to a new ministry-level agency by next August.

At a news briefing on Thursday, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said the proposal to turn the Sports Administration under the Ministry of Education (MOE) into a new separate ministry had been signed off on by Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) earlier the same day.

The proposal was a result of two months of consultations with dozens of professional athletes, scholars and industry representatives, among others, he said.

While physical education and campus sports activities will still be handled by the MOE, responsibility for training professional athletes and promoting sports at the community level will shift to the proposed ministry, Kung noted.

The proposal will soon be sent to the Legislature for review, Kung said, adding that the premier has called for bipartisan support for the bill to ensure its passage before the current legislative session ends early next year.

The Cabinet's goal is to inaugurate the planned sports ministry next August, he said.

For that to happen, however, the Cabinet will need the backing of lawmakers from the main opposition Kuomintang and the smaller Taiwan People's Party, who together form a majority in the 113-seat Legislature.

The two parties have yet to make their positions clear on the proposed upgrade, which is part of a series of policy pledges made by President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) at his inauguration on May 20.

According to the proposal, a new agency will be established under the planned ministry to popularize various types of sports, effectively reversing the current policy that concentrates government resources on a select group of elite athletes, Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠), head of the Sports Administration, said.

In addition, a new "sports industry development" center will be set up under the planned ministry to promote the sports industry in Taiwan, Cheng told the press event.

It will become the third public body under the proposed ministry, in addition to the National Sports Training Center and the Taiwan Institute of Sports Science in Kaohsiung.

Minister without Portfolio Shih Che (史哲) told the briefing that the government had in the past put much less effort into promoting the estimated NT$500 billion (US$15.5 billion) sports industry.

Shih described the planned center as a key element of the proposed sports agency upgrade, as it would be tasked with further promoting the industry and assisting the sports community in Taiwan in building more global links.

Meanwhile, Deputy Education Minister Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) envisioned that following the launch of the planned ministry, annual government budgets for sports would increase to NT$20 billion.

Although the Cabinet has earmarked NT$17 billion for the Sports Administration for the fiscal year 2025, its planned budget is still awaiting legislative approval.