BEIJING – The Philippine Sports Commission and the Chinese Ministry of Sports will draw up a Memorandum of Understanding that will formalize a sports exchange designed to put in place a full-scale training program for international competitions.

PSC chairman Harry Angping said that upon his return to Manila he would immediately draft the agreement identifying specific areas of cooperation between China and the Philippines.

The MOU will revolve around the Philippine request for the establishment of a sports secondary school, its training of athletes in China for the Laos Southeast Asian Games and the Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010.

“Mission accomplished,” said Angping after his meeting with Chinese Minister of Sports Liu Peng.

During his courtesy call on Liu, the Chinese government approved in principle the PSC’s request to send to the Philippines Chinese coaches in fencing, badminton, wushu, diving, table tennis, gymnastics, weightlifting and shooting, although the PSC must specify Filipino athletes’ current level of training and how long the training would take.

China, Liu said, has a national pool of coaches that can give Filipinos basic, intermediate and advanced training but a specific timetable must be presented since China has similar requests from other countries in Asia, notably the SEA Games members.

China will also be tapped to help in developing the country’s coaches recruitment and development program so local mentors will eventually take over from their foreign counterparts.

Angping said part of the program is just compensation for local coaches who could be receiving from P15,000 which is what they receive a month to P100,000 depending on their competence.

The PSC will also need the support of the Chinese government in designing a career path not only for local coaches but also for national athletes, starting from the basic (age group) level to intermediate and advanced levels, which will qualify them for the RP training pool.

While the country has yet to start a nationwide recruitment program for basic training in the age group level, the PSC hopes to be able to identify talent on the grassroots and invite young boys and girls to enroll in the proposed Sports Secondary School, which the PSC hopes to establish next year.

Angping is hoping Congress will be able to pass the law giving the PSC officials a permanent term to see the school through its initial years of operations.

China’s success in the Olympics hinges on a strong training center for millions of young Chinese, from age 5 to 19, through a sports program that integrates both sports and academics in the elementary and high school level.

“We look to China as a neighbor and a big brother,” said Angping, adding that the meeting has extended RP-China relations, erstwhile limited only to business and cultural exchange, to sports.

Angping said the MOU would be signed next year in Malacañang to coincide with the 35th year of relationship between the Philippines and China.

“Since our participation in the Olympics in 1924, we have never won a gold medal. We believe that with the program we will eventually win one,” he said.

The PSC mission, which includes Arturo Macapagal of shooting, PRISAA national chairman Gonzalo Duque and PSC executive assistant Paul Vega, had a chance to tour China’s National Sports Center, otherwise called China’s secret training camp, where national athletes are training in earnest for next year’s Asian Games in Guangzhou.