Kazakh Minister of Culture and Sports Dauren Abayev offered a new approach to the construction of sports and recreation facilities today at the Government’s meeting. He believes that it is time to move away from expensive huge sports complexes, most of which remain idle in the end. The minister opined that it makes sense to focus on modern prefabricated and low-cost sports modules that will help solve the tangible deficit of gyms in several regions of the country. There is an acute lack of them in Turkistan and Almaty regions, as well as in the cities of Nur-Sultan and Shymkent. In addition, Pavlodar, Karagandy and West Kazakhstan regions experience shortage. To date, the country has more than 42,000 sports facilities, 23,000 out of which are located in rural areas.
“The huge sport complexes include areas, which do not have particular purpose, such as atriums or large corridor spaces. We are proposing to change approaches. One of the solutions to this issue is the construction of prefabricated and low-cost sports modules. For example, the governor’s office of North Kazakhstan region began applying such an experience to provide rural areas with sports infrastructure. It is much cheaper, more functional and faster. We ask the governor’s offices to consider this approach,” Abayev said.
The ministry presented a whole plan for developing sports infrastructure until 2025. It is planned to implement 140 projects as part of it.
Translation by Saniya Sakenova
Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova
