The future of Hong Kong sport will lie in the hands of a 10-strong body led by Secretary for Home Affairs, Dr Patrick Ho Chi-ping - chairman of the new Sports Commission, which came into effect this month.
Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, president of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, will be vice-chairman of the body, which includes six ex-officio and four appointed members.
The current set of appointments to the Sports Commission will be for a two-year period - from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2006. The commission's role will be to act as a central advisory body that will provide co-ordination and overall direction in sports development.
Apart from Ho and Fok, the other eight members on the commission are Chau How-chen (chairman of the Community Sports Committee), Victor Hui Chun-fui (chairman of the Elite Sports Committee), Herman Hu Shao-ming (chairman of the Major Sports Events Committee), the director of Leisure and Cultural Services Anissa Wong Sean-yee, Dr David Fang, William Leung Wing-cheung, Stephen Tan and Peter Wong Tung-shun.
'The Sports Commission is an umbrella organisation in realising the new visions for sports in Hong Kong in three major aspects - sports for all, turning Hong Kong into a sports events capital, and sports excellence,' said Ho.
The terms of reference of the commission include advising the government on (a) the formulation of sports policy for sports development in Hong Kong; (b) the building of partnership relationships among major stakeholders in order to facilitate the effective implementation of sports policy; (c) the broad principles and guidelines in the provision of funding support to sports and related organisations for promoting and developing sports.