SINGAPORE, Mar 14, 2003 - Take your family to The New Paper Big Walk 2003 and you will not only have loads of fun and a good doze of workout along the way, you may even drive home in a 2000 cc Nissan Primera wagon.

Set to be bigger and more exciting, with fun-filled activities from start to end, this year's Big Walk, in its 13th year, aims to draw more families to join in the 10-km walk which will wind along some of the most picturesque routes in the city centre.

The top attraction will undoubtedly be the Nissan Primera wagon which the organisers are giving away as the grand lucky draw prize for the walkers. The Nissan family car is sponsored by Tan Chong Motor Sales Pte Ltd. Other prizes include exercise equipment, digital cameras and watches. And all walkers will get a goodie bag each.

The New Paper Big Walk 2003 will be flagged off by Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Acting Minister for Community Development & Sports on May 18 at 7.30am at the National Stadium.

Jointly organised by The New Paper, Singapore Sports Council and Singapore Amateur Athletic Association, this homegrown mass event which started in 1991 with 7,000 walkers, drew more than 77,500 from all walks of life in 2000 to be recognised as the World's Largest Walk by the Guinness World Records.

It has gathered momentum with each passing year and is a great social leveler in fostering community spirit and promoting walking as a wholesome family sport. This year, to reinforce the family participation theme, prizes will be given to the biggest family, oldest and youngest family members.

Said Mr James Heng, SPH's Executive Vice President for Product Development and Branding: "The New Paper Big Walk is aimed at promoting walking as a healthy lifestyle. With the focus on family participation this year, we hope to promote healthy living by encouraging more Singapore families to take up walking as a fitness sport."

Added Mr Ivan Fernandez, Editor of The New Paper: "A Singaporean, whom I met out of the blue, told me that like other annual festivals, the year would not be complete without The New Paper Big Walk. That's a marvelous compliment."

To inject a competitive spirit into the walk, corporate teams are encouraged to turn up in their corporate colours, and cash prizes will be given to teams which display the best team spirit.

The New Paper Big Walk is a non-profit sports event organised for the benefit for the community. All proceeds from the event will be donated to a charity organisation of the paper's choice.

Public registration starts from Mar 15 to May 11. Participants can register in either the fun walking or competitive categories at $4 and $5 respectively.

Fun walkers can register at the registration booths at Tampines Mall, Causeway Point and Suntec City. They can also register at the entire chain of 7-eleven outlets all over Singapore. Competitive walkers can register at the National Stadium and Suntec City. In addition, online registration is available at the event's official web-site hosted by AsiaOne at http://tnpbigwalk.asiaone.com

The 18 sponsors for this year's New Paper Big Walk are (in alphabetical order):

1. Beiersdorf Singapore Pte Ltd
2. Crystal Time (Singapore) Pte Ltd
3. Danone Marketing (Singapore) Pte Ltd
4. DBS Bank
5. Diethelm Singapore Pte Ltd
6. Digital Network Access Communications Pte Ltd
7. Field Catering & Supplies Pte Ltd
8. Five Stars Tours Pte Ltd
9. Fuji Photo Film (Singapore) Pte Ltd
10. McDonald's Restaurant Pte Ltd
11. Royal Sporting House (Singapore) Pte Ltd
12. SBS Transit Ltd
13. Sentosa Enterprises Private Limited
14. Singapore Health Equipment Suppliers
15. Singapore Telecommunications Ltd
16. Starhub Cable Vision Ltd
17. Super Coffeemix Manufacturing Ltd
18. Tan Chong Motor Sales Pte Ltd

Issued by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd


Address by Mr James Heng, Chairman of the Organising Committee of The New Paper Big Walk 2003 at the Press Conference on Mar 14 at SPH Auditorium, News Centre

Good morning members of the media, our sponsors, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of my co-organisers Singapore Sports Council and Singapore Amateur Athletics Association, I wish you a warm welcome to this morning's press conference and the launch of The New Paper Big Walk 2003.

Started in 1991, this year marks the 13th year of The New Paper Big Walk.

Most of you should, by now, be very familiar with the Big Walk, which is considered the single, largest sports event in Singapore. In fact, it is recognised as the world's biggest organised walk, having attracted a record 77,500 walkers in year 2000.

The New Paper Big Walk is aimed at promoting walking as a healthy sport. It plays a significant role in promoting a national healthy lifestyle. With the focus on family participation this year, we hope to promote healthy living by encouraging more Singapore families to take up walking as a fitness sport.

In conjunction with our family theme, we will be giving away a family space wagon, a 2-litre Nissan Primera as our grand lucky draw prize. It will be the biggest Nissan car ever given out in The New Paper Big Walk's 13-year history.

The New Paper Big Walk is synonymous with The New Paper, which is highly-regarded for its extensive sports news coverage. The afternoon tabloid, with a circulation of 125,000 on weekdays and over 150,000 on Sunday, has a strong following in sports, especially soccer. To serve sports readers better and give them more value-add in sport news, it has recently launched a free soccer weekly guide called S-weekly to help soccer fans track the new season S-League matches.

The Big Walk is a non-profit event. Any surplus in proceeds, after defraying organisational expenses, will be donated to an appropriate charity of the paper's choice.

It is with this community spirit that Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) is once again bringing you this walking event of the year, which cost over half a million dollars to organise. Despite the economic downturn and the high costs of undertaking this mega sports event, SPH is committed to working with our sponsors to improve the lives of our communities through wholesome activities, such as this event.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a big "thank you" to all our sponsors, whose representatives have taken precious time off their schedules to attend today's press conference. Without their generous support, SPH would find it more difficult to put together an event of this scale.

The New Paper Big Walk provides an excellent platform for the sponsors to get optimum mileage for their respective brands. They are able to reach out daily to our readers through news coverage and the events' advertising campaign. We will pump over $1.5 million on publicity advertisements on newspapers, TV, radio, Internet across four languages. Our sponsors will get the maximum exposure from The New Paper Big Walk. And reaching out to the 75,000 walkers through sponsoring prizes and goodie bags.

The sponsors for The New Paper Big Walk 2003, in alphabetical order, are:

1. Beiersdorf Singapore Pte Ltd
2. Crystal Time (Singapore) Pte Ltd
3. Danone Marketing (Singapore) Pte Ltd
4. DBS Bank
5. Diethelm Singapore Pte Ltd
6. Digital Network Access Communications Pte Ltd
7. Field Catering & Supplies Pte Ltd
8. Five Stars Tours Pte Ltd
9. Fuji Photo Film (Singapore) Pte Ltd
10. McDonald's Restaurant Pte Ltd
11. Royal Sporting House (Singapore) Pte Ltd
12. SBS Transit Ltd
13. Sentosa Enterprises Private Limited
14. Singapore Health Equipment Suppliers
15. Singapore Telecommunications Ltd
16. StarHub Pte Ltd
17. Super Coffeemix Manufacturing Ltd
18. Tan Chong Motor Sales Pte Ltd

This year, we have also made the registration for the walk much easier. We have registration booths set up at three major shopping centres - Tampines Mall in the east, Causeway Point in the north and Suntec City in central part of Singapore. In addition, registration can also be done at the entire chain of 7-eleven outlets all over Singapore, which makes registration for The New Paper Big walk a breeze!

Registration for the big walk will open tomorrow on Mar 15. Walkers can also register online at the event's official web-site hosted by AsiaOne. The site not only contains information and history about The New Paper Big Walk, it also provides hot-links to our sponsors' web-sites, giving additional exposure and publicity to our sponsors.

I would like to end my speech on this hopeful note: to see The New Paper Big Walk continue to grow as a national event. I hope that it will become an event which the community could identify with and for all in the family to enjoy. It should be an event for colleagues of the same company, for members of a club or association, or even for friends to walk together. It is truly an event for all ages, culture and creed.

I urge our friends from the media to give their utmost support by giving maximum publicity to The New Paper Big Walk 2003, to help make it into another successful sporting event for our community.

Thank you