Twenty years ago Hong Kong was known as a cultural desert. Two decades later we are still looking for the oasis. In that time more resources have been allocated to promoting arts. We have seen the establishment of a Music Office, the Academy for Performing Arts, the Cultural Centre and a string of new town halls across the territory for staging various cultural activities. We have improved a lot since the 1970s. But impressive as these arts venues and institutions are, where are the artists, the arts workers and the arts companies? And where is the locally-produced art to fill the venues that have been built? Municipal councillors may be proud that over the years, they have spent millions of dollars to try to grow something in the cultural desert. But what they probably cannot see is that in reality, Hong Kong's cultural scene has at most been transformed into a concrete jungle. It would be unfair to blame the municipal councils and the Government for Hong Kong's failure to groom a new generation of artists as artistic prowess is simply not something the majority of local people highly value. In a city as materialistic as Hong Kong, when achievements are often measured by how much money you make and how famous you are, it is not surprising that many people will consider any investment in arts a waste of time. But that does not mean more cannot be done by the two municipal councils and the Government to improve the present situation. If local people have to change their values towards artistic prowess before we can inject new life into our arts scene, officials will also have to take a fresh look at what would be the best way to deploy our resources to foster arts development here. For the municipal councils, it should be tempting to invest more in construction of new venues to demonstrate their efforts to promote arts. This kind of concrete achievement is often easier for the community to appreciate. And, obviously, the councils would be more reluctant to invest heavily in people and in grooming artists as it is more difficult for them and the community to see the results. After all, artistic excellence can be a very subjective thing. There is no objective yardstick, like in sport. But this should not be the reason for the Government to limit investment in people. Instead of building venue after venue throughout the territory, councillors should now seriously consider whether their budgets can be better spent by deploying more funds to help potential talents in various fields get better coaching and training. Instead of expanding only local training resources, officials can consider whether funds should be set aside to set up scholarships dedicated to sending aspiring artists to prominent institutions around the world. A key obstacle for developing our own artists is that even though we have the talent in Hong Kong, many worry about how to make ends meet. For many students of arts, no matter how much they love it, it is difficult to find hundreds of thousands of dollars to pursue an artistic career. Unlike investing in a Master of Business Administration degree which is more likely to guarantee a well-paid job on graduation, a diploma or a degree with the world's renowned arts institutes may not even promise you a job. It is sad that in a city as prosperous as Hong Kong, we cannot do a little something to support a few arts talents. There is still a long way to go before Hong Kong can really repair its reputation for being a cultural desert. The Government and the municipal councils can take the lead, and if the private sector can pitch in we will surely see a more promising future for the local arts scene.