The National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports is working on plans to increase sporting exchanges with other countries and increase the number of people in Taiwan who participate in sports.
Council officials said yesterday that the plans aim to build up a strong body of sportsmen and broaden peoples' horizons through sports and cultural exchanges with other countries.
The plan calls for the government to bid for membership of international school sports organizations, solicit the right to host international youth sports competitions, promote exchanges of cross-strait high school sports teams and nurture talent for international youth sports affairs.
Cabinet officials said that the project will attempt to upgrade the sports abilities of youngsters, boost their chances of winning awards in international sporting events, promote cultural and sporting exchanges and raise Taiwan's visibility in the international community.
Sports officials are also working on a project to double the number of local people who participate in sports, hoping to persuade those who take no regular exercise to make sports part of their lives.
They said that they are planning to increase the number of such people by 500,000 a year in the hope that the number will reach 3 million by 2007.
Taiwan has been an underachiever in the world of sports, not having won one gold medal at the Olympics, despite hefty financial inducements to its athletes and poaching top performers from China and elsewhere.
While Taiwan has done well in Little League baseball, it has not made a strong impression on the international game, though it came third at last year's Baseball World Cup, held in Taiwan.
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