Sports
161. Hong Kong athletes made remarkable performance, and achieved outstanding and encouraging results in major international sports events last year. In 2019, our teams also excelled in cycling, table tennis, fencing, football and other events. I strongly believe that Hong Kong athletes will continue to shine and thrive.
162. Athletes strive for excellence in the arena but most of them retire from sports before the age of 40. It is important to plan early for turning a new chapter in life. In recent years, the Government has been providing additional resources and working jointly with universities to support athletes in pursuing athletic training and academic studies at the same time. I will inject $250 million into the Hong Kong Athletes Fund to increase scholarship awards in support of the dual-track development of athletes, and will provide more cash incentives for full-time athletes when they retire from sports.
163. The LCSD is conducting a comprehensive review of the Sports Subvention Scheme. Before the outcome is available, I will allocate an additional recurrent provision of $25 million and an extra two-year subsidy of $17 million per year to enhance the financial assistance for 60 national sports associations (NSAs). The funds can be used to support participation in overseas competitions, offering squad training programmes and supporting under-privileged athletes, as well as other operating costs. Moreover, I will provide a one-off grant of $15 million for staff training, further studies, procurement of equipment, improvement of office facilities, etc. In other words, the additional resources to be allocated to NSAs in the coming two years will amount to almost $100 million. When concrete recommendations are available upon completion of the review, I will provide the required resources as necessary.
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