ENG-2005 — Page 486

420 Recreation, Sport and the Arts

During the year, the department introduced the Community Sports Club Enhancement Programme to encourage community sports clubs to utilise non-peak hours at LCSD venues to organise more sports training programmes for their members. Community sports clubs were also encouraged to organise more inter-club competitions with the objective of raising the standards of sports at the community level.

Sports Subvention Scheme

The LCSD has the sole responsibility for distributing grants to NSAs and other sports organisations for organising sports activities. The subvention covers the general administration, staff costs and programmes expenses of NSAs. Sports organisations use the subvention mainly for organising sports programmes.

In 2005, the department provided subvention of $139.3 million to 57 NSAs and 28 sports organisations. More than 8 530 sports programmes were organised by the NSAs and other organisations, attracting 653 800 participants. Among the most popular programmes were the Youth Football Scheme, the New Generation Table Tennis Training Courses, the Youth Windsurfing Promotion Scheme and the Youth Wushu Training Scheme.

During the year, the NSAs were given subsidies under the scheme to organise international events held locally. The events included the Volleyball World Grand Prix, Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Race, World Hong Kong Luminous Dragon Dance and Lion Dance Championships and ITU Hong Kong International Triathlon. These international events were organised to promote Hong Kong as the Events Capital of Asia.

2008 Olympic and Paralympic Equestrian Events

The International Olympic Committee's decision to relocate the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Equestrian Events to Hong Kong was formally announced on July 8, 2005.

The Government was quick to bring all concerned departments and stakeholders into action, and worked in close partnership with the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the 29th Olympiad, the International Olympics Committee and the Federation Equestre Internationale during the year. An organising committee Equestrian Committee (Hong Kong) of Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the 29th Olympiad was established. The Chief Executive is the Patron and the Chief Secretary for Administration, the President of the committee. A specific- purpose company registered under the Companies Ordinance was also formed to implement the day-to-day organisation work in accordance with the policy decisions. and directives made by the Equestrian Committee.

'M' Mark Status and Support Packages Scheme

The 'M' Mark Status and Support Packages Scheme was launched in November 2004 by the Major Sports Events Committee. The major objective of the scheme is to help the NSAs develop more sustainable major international events through greater