Budget Speech

Promoting Sports

97.      Hong Kong will host the 2009 East Asian Games. Hong Kong people will have the opportunity to witness first-hand the competitions among elite athletes from East Asia. We hope that more local athletes can join this major sports event to gain experience in international competitions and win medals for Hong Kong. To this end, I will allocate about $20 million to strengthen our athletes' preparation.

98.      To further support community sports, we have earmarked $50 million in the Sir David Trench Fund for Recreation to finance new facilities and equipment for district sports associations and National Sports Associations in the next three to four years.