Hong Kong Sevens: government ‘must spare no effort’ in ensuring event goes ahead in November, finance minister Paul Chan says
- Paul Chan Mo-po ramps up government support for long-awaited return of the city’s flagship sporting event
- Staging Sevens in November will ‘show vitality of the city’, says Chan during a video posted to his Facebook account
Hong Kong’s finance minister has said the government “must spare no effort” in helping to make sure the rugby sevens takes place in November.
Paul Chan Mo-po ramped up government support for the major sporting event while taking part in a game of touch rugby at a city primary school, a video of which was uploaded to his Facebook page on Friday.
In a post on the social media platform, the financial secretary said officials were working hard to ensure that the Hong Kong Sevens was a success and staging it would “show the vitality of the city”.
The comments may go some way to alleviating concerns among residents that a return to normal life in Hong Kong remained as far away as ever, especially given the continued delay in announcing a reduction in quarantine requirements for arrivals.
While Chan’s video was being posted online, the government was calling off a much-awaited press briefing – at which the announcement of an easing of quarantine was expected – over “unresolved technical issues”.
Chan had joined children from Xianggang Putonghua Yanxishe Primary School on Thursday for a quick introduction to rugby from Christy Cheng, a former member of the Hong Kong women’s team, and appeared to be thoroughly enjoying himself.
The minister ran drills with the children, where they passed a ball to each other, and then played for the boys’ blue team, against Cheng and the girls’ red team.