Why commercial sponsorship is so important

J. GARNER questions The Community Chest's policy of publicly acknowledging sponsorship provided by tobacco companies (South China Morning Post, May 30). Allow me to explain our policy once again.

Commercial sponsorship covers many of the Chest's running costs. We accept sponsorship from any company which is conducting business legally in Hong Kong and we recognise that sponsors expect their support to be acknowledged. This is a normal business practice and certainly does not imply that the Chest can be ''bought off''.

J Garner asked two specific questions. Let me give two specific answers.

1) Have the welfare agencies supported by the Chest been asked whether they approve of the Chest accepting money from tobacco companies? We have not formally surveyed our member agencies, but the Chest's position is well known and the agencies are, of course, free to tell us if they do not wish to receive funds from tobacco companies. None has done so. In any case, sponsorship money is used to cover running costs and does not go to welfare agencies.

2) Does the Chest employ agencies that also serve the tobacco industry? No.

We believe one of the main reasons why people give so generously to the Chest is that they know that every dollar of their donation will be passed on to our member agencies without deduction. Commercial sponsorship from many different companies helps to make that possible. In short, commercial sponsorship helps the Chest to help the needy in Hong Kong.