Financial secretary’s HK$5 billion budget boost for Hong Kong sport not all that it seems
The injection effectively maintains the current level of usable cash for the programme after declining returns
Elite sports development in Hong Kong will receive an extra HK$5 billion as outlined in Wednesday’s budget, effectively maintaining the current level of usable cash for the programme, whose principal investment fund has been hit by declining returns.
The sports community had been hoping for an effective increase in funding to reinvigorate development after the city’s athletes returned empty-handed from the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.
On a day when sport was afforded five paragraphs out of a total 200 in Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po’s annual budget speech, the government, which expects a surplus of HK$138 billion this financial year, set aside the amount as the latest injection into the Elite Athletes Development Fund.
Set up by the government in 2011, the fund is in place to provide a reliable financial source for the Sports Institute, which supports 19 tier-A sports at its training centre in Fo Tan.
Coupled with the HK$1 billion promised by former chief executive Leung Chun-ying in his last policy address, the total funding capital is now HK$12.5 billion.