Budget 2014: Youth and Sports Ministry hopes for bigger allocation

Khairy said the three areas were vocational education, involving the transformation of the National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN); youth development; and upgrading of sport facilities across the country.

"I have given numerous suggestions to the Finance Ministry and I really hope that the government will give priority to the three areas, including to vocational education because it is important for us to provide proper and suitable education to our young generation.

"We are also focusing on youth development and the fact that more sport facilities needed repair and upgrading. So, we really hope that the government will give us bigger allocation than the RM700 million we received last year."

He told this to reporters after launching the Petronas-Youth and Sports Ministry's Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Training Programme at Bandar Penawar IKBN here Thursday.

Also present were Petronas Group president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Shamsul Azhar Abbas.

On IKBN's transformation, Khairy said the ministry had targetted to increase the number of IKBN students to 15,000 from the current 10,000 within the next two years.

"However, instead of building new institutes to facilitate the increase in the number of students, we will introduce a two-session course, one to be taught in the morning, and the other in the evening, besides providing other suitable facilities and increasing the number of tutors and lecturers," he said.

Meanwhile, Khairy said 542 youths had also been accepted to undergo the short-term HSE programme since January this year.