$12,000 grant to Basketball Fiji

BASKETBALL Fiji yesterday received a $12,000 grant from the Chinese Embassy to assist with development and training. Chinese Embassy counsellor Fei Mingxing presented the President of Basketball Fiji Ioane Naivalurua with the grant. Mingxing said the Chinese Embassy was very happy to help Basketball Fiji in their development bid. He was impressed with the national teams outstanding achievements in the past and hopes that the donation will assist our national side achieve more .

"Basketball is the first sport that we have assisted," said Mingxing. "Your president (Naivalurua) is a very good friend of our ambassador, and you're in a strong leadership under the commissioner of prisons," he said. "There is a need to identify talent at a very young age and develop them as they grow," he said. Naivalurua said the money would be used in the growth and development of the sport. "Sports is a tool to develop diplomatic relations," Naivalurua said. "For us, it's more than just basketball. We want to use basketball to reach out to the young generation and help them grow to be good citizens," he said.

Also present was Basketball Fiji's development officer, Laisiasa Puamau who was grateful towards the grant and said that he would use this to purchase much-needed equipments for their respective associations.So far Fiji has four associations, the Raiwaqa Basketball Players Association, the Suva-Laucala Basketballers, the Lautoka and the Nadi Association.

Source: The Fiji Times Online

1st July, 2010