Entertainment and recreational facilities for children in HCM City
are unable to meet the increasing and diverse demands of children
because they are hampered by funding and personnel shortages, officials
say.
With the current situation, it was difficult
to develop infrastructure and equipment for facilities catering to 1.7
million city children as well as 2.4 million teenagers, not to mention
600,000 disabled children, Nguyen Thanh Rum, director of the city's
Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said at seminar held by the
city People's Council last week.
The shortage of
qualified officials working in cultural and sports centres and
children's houses led to ineffective operation of entertainment
facilities, Rum said.
Fee collection at cultural
centres and children's houses also hindered the participation of
disadvantaged children, he said.
The 13,000sq.m
Khanh Hoi Children's Entertainment Area in District 4, which attracts
1,500-2,000 children per day, was overloaded at weekend and holidays,
said Nguyen Tien Dat, chairman of the district People's Committee.
"It is a free playground for children in the district, and its
operation costs are mainly met through sales of food and beverages and
parking fees," Dat said.
"The entertainment demand
of children is very huge, especially for outdoor playgrounds, but the
capacity of facilities is very limited," he added.
Tran Thi Dieu Thuy, deputy secretary of the city's Communist Youth
Union, said most children's houses were struggling to improve their
operations to attract more children with an average annual funding of
500 million VND (25,700 USD) from the State budget. Overheads at many
houses accounted for as much of 70 percent of their expenses, she said.
Only 12 children's houses were operating effectively
because of adequate financial support from the districts' budget, Thuy
said.
Most of the children's houses did not have
meeting halls or multi-purpose stadiums for cultural, art, sports and
other outdoor activities.
Last year the children's
houses in the city attracted just 600,000 children to participate in
entertainment and recreational activities.
"The
activities of cultural centres and children's houses were simple and
backward compared with advanced entertainment forms designed for
children's mental and physical development," said Dr. Nguyen Thi Hau,
deputy head of the city's Institute for Development Studies.
Advanced equipment, tools and forms of entertainment activities should
be made available to meet the diverse demands of children and ensure
development of life-skills among them, Hau said.
Hau
proposed that the city should encourage investment by individuals and
enterprises to develop infrastructure and equipment for cultural, art,
sports and entertainment facilities for children in the central
districts so that more financial support from the State budget could be
allocated to outlying districts.
Pham Phuong Thao,
chairwoman of the city People's Council agreed with the participants,
saying that entertainment and recreational areas for children not only
failed to meet demand, but also operated inefficiently.
She blamed the situation on a shortage of land set aside for the
development of entertainment areas for children, the lack of
preferential policies to attract investors and poor management.
State budget funds would be allocated to develop an additional
facility of the city's Children's House in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area
in District 2 and playgrounds for children in ten parks in the city as
part of the city's short-term plan, she said.
The
city would also provide funding to build facilities in two districts
without children's houses, Tan Phu and Hoc Mon, she added./.
