President Ma Ying-jeou presided over the opening of a sports center in Taipei's Wenshan District Sunday and said he felt delighted that each of the city's 12 districts now had at least one multipurpose sports facility. 'I am really happy that the plan, started by me with the building of the city's first sports center in Zhongshan District, was completed by Mayor Hau with the dedication of the Wenshan Sports Center,' said Ma, who served as Taipei's mayor from late 1998 to late 2006. Ma built six sports centers during his eight-year term, while his successor, Hau Lung-bin, completed the other six. The president, who is himself an enthusiastic jogger, said many people didn't exercise because of the scarcity of exercise facilities in the city, or because of the long distances they had to travel to get to such facilities. That is no longer the case in Taipei, he said. 'It is the government's job to provide people with exercise places that are easily accessible and affordable. 'I hope the sports centers, like EasyCards, will become one of the administration's most popular policies, ' Ma said, referring to the stored-value cards used mainly to pay mass transit system fares and bus fares. Ma said his administration has pushed hard to boost the number of people in Taiwan who exercise regularly, which now stands at 24.4 percent of the population, with a high proportion of them in Taipei. To support the initiative to make exercise a lifestyle, Ma's government plans to build 50 sports centers around the island, with 14 of them, evenly distributed around northern, central, southern and eastern Taiwan, already in the planning stages. Citing a plan drawn up by the Sports Affairs Council, the president said only cities with a population of more than 150,000 could apply for grant from the council to build sports centers. 'As a trailblazer in this regard, Taipei may share its experience with other cities.' The Wenshan Sports Center is a seven-storey building with a floor space of 12,500 square meters. It consists of a swimming pool, a gym, several dancing classrooms, badminton courts, table tennis tables, one basketball court and an indoor rock-climbing gym. 