KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) is now getting inputs from private sector representatives in drafting the Olympians pension scheme proposal.
OCM president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria stressed that the scheme will be different from the civil servants’ pension scheme, thus needs thorough discussions before bringing the proposal to the government through the National Sports Council (NSC).
He said the opinions from the private sector is to avoid over reliance on government funding and making the funds sustainable, besides increasing the success rate.
“This is an uncharted waters, but we are working hard to ensure that there’s some low hanging fruits or some early success to the scheme. Basically, we will have a certain amount from the government, invest it to ensure the scheme or fund is sustainable for long time.
“Look at our OCM trust amount for instance, we have RM21 million, but every year we do not touch the capital, we just use the returns from investments. So we will work within that kind of scheme.
“We are getting a lot of people on board to discuss this,” he told a press conference after chairing OCM’s Executive Board meeting at Wisma OCM here, today.
Last November, the OCM had proposed for the pension scheme to be included under Budget 2021 to help ease the burden of national athletes who had sacrificed a lot for the country’s glory at the Olympics and equivalent level competitions, like the world championships.
A month later, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican told the Dewan Rakyat that the ministry was discussing the pension scheme with various sports organisations and that the proposal would be brought to the Cabinet soon.
Currently, only Olympic Games medallists are entitled to a pension.
