As world athletes compete at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, children also participate in winter sports at an outdoor skating rink in Haidian district on February 9, 2022. Photo: VCG

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planner, will invest 2.1 billion yuan ($331 million) to build 185 sports venues including sports parks, national fitness centers and public facilities for outdoor sports, in a bid to provide better infrastructure and services to boost national fitness, the administration said on Wednesday on its Wechat account.

According to the NDRC, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games will inspire the Chinese people to be more engaged in winter sports. The new round of investment focuses on building sports facilities which improve access to the natural environment, including hiking, cycling and walking trials, as well as sports venues related to ice and snow sports, which will better meet public demand, and help accelerate the integration of snow-related sports into the lives of regular people.

The NDRC said that this year's investment has been fast-tracked and the total amount of funds allocated to this area has increased by 100 million yuan from last year. Experts also noted that the government's involvement will help expand effective investment as well as promote the growth of the sports economy.

In addition, China's General Administration of Sport (GAS) will subsidize stadia to offer free-of-charge public sports activities, including training courses, maintenance of stadiums stadia and infrastructure upgrading.

Qiu Ru, an official from the GAS, said on February 9 that the sports administration vows to launch or rebuild over 1,000 sports venues across the country during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), so that more people in the country could participate in sporting activities.

China has invested more than 13.5 billion yuan in the construction of sports facilities. By the end of 2020, the number of national sports venues increased by 89.7 percent over 2017 levels, with the total area of sporting venues in the country increasing by 33.4 percent during the three-year period, Qu said.

Global Times