Budget Speech

Promoting Arts, Culture and Sports

122.      To provide the necessary support to the development of the West Kowloon Cultural District, I will allocate additional funding of $486 million over the next five financial years. The funding will be used for measures such as art programme development, audience building and enhancement of art education and manpower training. We will support art groups and artists in developing their brand performances and step up the promotion of public art and popular cultural and art activities, with a view to integrating art into our community. At the same time, we will strengthen the promotion of arts in schools to develop young people's interest in arts and culture and their appreciation abilities in these areas. We will organise training programmes to provide training and internship opportunities for people who aspire to a career in arts and culture.

123.      Cantonese opera has become our first item of world intangible cultural heritage. To further preserve it as an art form, I propose to draw $69 million from the additional funding just announced and inject it into the Cantonese Opera Development Fund. In the next financial year, we will also request the Legislative Council to approve funding of approximately $730 million for constructing an annex building with a medium-sized theatre and training facilities at the Ko Shan Theatre. I expect that the existing and the new theatres of the Ko Shan Theatre and the Yau Ma Tei Xiqu Activity Centre under construction will become dedicated venues that attract audience to watch Cantonese opera performances.

124.      During the East Asian Games last year, Hong Kong athletes achieved unprecedented success. We will seize this opportunity to encourage various sectors of the community to give continued support to our athletes and to the development of sports programmes and facilities. We will also facilitate greater participation in sports and the organisation of major sports events to increase public interest in sports.

125.      To further promote the development of sports and arts, I propose to inject $3 billion into the Arts and Sport Development Fund as seed money and use the annual investment return of the Fund to provide sustainable additional resources for subsidising the long-term development of sports, culture and arts.

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