Evaluating the effectiveness of the policy on ‘promoting sports in the community, supporting elite sports and developing Hong Kong into a prime destination for hosting major international sports events' and formulating a long-term sports policy(2014/3/19)

President, after the reunification, "promoting sports in the community, supporting elite sports and developing Hong Kong into a prime destination for hosting major international sports events" have been the SAR Government's policy on the development of sports. The policy requires the implementation of specific measures and regular reviews; otherwise it will become an empty slogan. The Government is duty-bound to improve the current sports policy according to the trend of development.

Everyone knows that if a city becomes a prime destination for hosting major international sports events, the greatest gain is that it can boost its popularity and international status, thereby attracting overseas visitors and stimulating local consumption, which would help promote sports in the community and support elite sports. That is why many cities are actively bidding to host mega sports events. 

Shanghai is a case in point. In recent years, it has hosted a number of well-known international competitions in succession, including the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix, ATP World Tour Masters 1000, IAAF Diamond League, Shanghai International Marathon, World Golf Championships, World Snooker Shanghai Masters and Tour of Chongming Island International Cycling Race. Besides that, Shanghai continues to host various international and national sports events. There will be over 100 events to be held in Shanghai in 2014, 28 of them international events, making Shanghai the focal point of major international sports events. 

Active government participation is the main reason for Shanghai's successful hosting of so many events. But with the government taking the lead, there are advantages as well as disadvantages. One advantage is that the government can provide many incentives, making it easier to find funding for the events while one disadvantage is that public money, that is, tax-payers' money is involved, and if the government only injects funds without caring about the returns, it will easily become a black hole of money spending.

Therefore, to support and to successfully host a major sports event, a government must, before injecting funds, first study implication of the event in the international community and carefully analyse the investment made and the returns gained, including the overall benefit to society. It is advisable to find sponsors to share the expenses. If injecting funds is just for the sake of injecting funds, the event will be difficult to last long.

As the saying goes, "Experience is the best teacher." We must learn from the failure of the Harbour Fest 10 years ago. Of course, we have also successes, for instance, the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens Tournament (Hong Kong Sevens). After 30-odd years' development, it has now become an annual major international sports event in Hong Kong.

According to the survey conducted by a market research company, the Hong Kong Sevens in 2011 attracted over 21 000 overseas visitors to Hong Kong to watch the game. The venue of the game, the Hong Kong Stadium, has the capacity of holding 40 000 people. Over half of them were from overseas. These visitors stayed in Hong Kong for six days on average and they usually came in groups of four. Their spending per capita was over $12,000. Other than tickets of the games, they also spent on accommodation, shopping, food and beverage, and transportation. A rough estimation shows that the direct economic benefits brought by these overseas visitors amounted to almost HK$300 million, coupled with the local audience's spending during the game, the actual amount was even larger. According to the statistics of air ticket booking in 2009 to 2012, the number of long-haul visitors in Hong Kong during the Hong Kong Sevens were only next to that during the peak seasons such as the Easter holidays and between October and November. 

The aforementioned example indicates that Hong Kong is well-equipped to host major international sports events. These events will attract long-haul visitors with great spending power to come to Hong Kong especially for the games and they will bring in considerable economic benefits. I suggest that the Government lays down a plan with clear objectives to support the hosting of two to three major events similar to the Hong Kong Sevens to build up a name for Hong Kong so that once audience see these sports events, they will think of Hong Kong. In so doing, Hong Kong will have regular proceeds from tourism brought by such events.

President, as the population grows, the boundary of communities extends. The Government needs to appropriately provide more sports and leisure facilities in various districts to meet the daily needs of the public. However, I am against excessive injection of resources without objective assessment, resulting in the failure to reasonably and fully utilized the facilities. 

According to the information submitted by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department to the Legislative Council, certain government sports facilities are underutilized. For example, in the past five years, both the usage rates of squash courts and tennis courts were under 60% while that of bowling greens was even under 40%. I hope that the Government will examine whether the resources injected have been properly used. 

There will be three sports venues in the Multi-purpose Sports Complex at Kai Tak. We must understand that other than occupying vast sites, these sports venues will incur huge construction costs and need tremendous manpower for management and maintenance upon completion. I suggest that the Government estimates very carefully the expenditure and revenue before and after the construction of these three sports venues. And, based on the information available and after taking on board the views of various parties, it makes an objective assessment of the usage of these venues by residents from the local and other districts, so as to maximize the economic and social benefits of these venues and meet the development needs of the sports sector in Hong Kong. 

President, I so submit.