In its first year of operation, only $46m was allotted
The $300 million fund set up by the government to help the underprivileged will run beyond its originally planned three-year term because after its first year of operation it still has more than $250 million to give away.
The Community Investment and Inclusion Fund announced in its first performance report yesterday that it had allotted $46.5 million to 59 projects since its inception in August 2002. The scheme, which has received 527 applications, was originally scheduled to last for three years.
Diane Wong Shuk-han, acting deputy secretary for health, welfare and food, said yesterday that the government had no plan to divert the rest of the fund to other purposes.
'The chief executive emphasised in the policy address that we should continue to encourage tripartite partnerships between the government, business community, and non-governmental organisations to provide mutual aid in the community,' she said.
'We have enough resources to continue the scheme [for more than three years] and will very soon study how this can be achieved.'
When asked to respond to criticisms that the fund was too restrictive, Raymond Wu Wai-yung, chairman of the fund, said: 'In the past, many of the funds gave out money for the sake of giving out money. But was the result really the one they desired?'
