HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
18 January 1989 香港立法局——————————一九八九年一月十八日
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on a territory-wide basis. Such funds are disbursed to organizations and individuals to assist with running expenses and project costs.
Last year, two of these organizations encountered financial difficulties. The Council for the Performing Arts undertook a full examination of their requests for additional funds. During this process, the council carefully considered and acknowledged the need to monitor more closely the work of grant recipients and to ensure that they were cost-effective. The Council also came to the twin conclusions that a substantial increase in government funding for the performing arts was needed and that more commercial sponsorship should be encouraged.
On the basis of recommendations made by the council, the Finance Committee of this Council approved in October last year supplementary grants to the Hong Kong Ballet and the Hong Kong Arts Festival Society.
The Council for the Performing Arts is currently considering various proposals regarding the future level of subvention for the performing arts. These will be put to Members of this Council for approval in the draft estimates for the next financial year.
The Council for the Performing Arts is also looking into proposals to encourage the private sector to increase its sponsorship of the arts, drawing on experience elsewhere in the world where such endeavours have proved remarkably successful. Results should be available within about nine months.
As regards arrangements to ensure that performing arts and related cultural organizations are managed efficiently, the Council for the Performing Arts has recently approved a proposal for "Arts Audits". The idea is to set up a team of experts, working in conjunction with the organization concerned to review all aspects of the latter's financial and administrative structure and control. It is intended that this system will eventually be extended to cover all Hong Kong's major performing arts groups.
Overall, Sir, I am reasonably confident that we already have, or are actively putting into place, a sound basis for funding the performing arts organizations and suitable structures to exercise the necessary degree of surveillance of their management.
MR. PAUL CHENG: Sir, in October last year the Finance Committee approved an additional $4.23 million to help shore up one of the two ailing organizations mentioned. This represented almost double the amount of the original budget of $2.8 million allocated for recurrent expenses for the year 1988-89. Will the
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