ENG-2017 — Page 381

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Recreation, Sport, Culture and the Arts

In disabled sports, Ng Mui-wui swept seven golds in the International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability's World Table Tennis Championships in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic. The women's fencing team of Chung Yuen-ping, Justine Charissa Ng, Tong Nga- ting and Yu Chui-yee took home a gold from the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation's Wheelchair Fencing World Championships in Rome.

Recreation and Sports Programmes

In 2017, the LCSD organised some 38,480 recreation and sports programmes for about 2.7 million participants of all ages and abilities at a total cost of $182 million.

District Sports Teams Training Scheme

A total of 9,214 young people took part in 249 district team events about basketball, football, handball and fencing.

Young Athletes Training Scheme

Training was conducted for 31,327 teenagers in 30 sports disciplines.

School Sports Programme

The programme provided 8,400 sporting events for 629,000 students at about 980 primary and secondary schools through seven subsidiary programmes: Sport Education, Easy Sport, Outreach Coaching, Joint Schools Sports Training, Sport Captain, the Badges Award Scheme and the Sports Award Scheme.

Community Sports Club Project

The project, organised by the department in collaboration with the NSAs, supported about 430 Community Sports Clubs in organising 2,350 sports training activities for 51,000 participants. Seminars and management development programmes were formulated for some 400 sports volunteers to help them run the clubs.

Sports Subvention Scheme

The department provides subvention to the NSAs and other sporting organisations for sports promotion and development. The subvention covers office and personnel expenses and spending on NSA programmes. In 2017, subventions totalling about $361 million were allocated to 60 NSAs and 22 sport organisations, which organised 10,700 sports programmes for 749,000 participants. The subventions included subsidies for NSAs to stage local and international events in Hong Kong, such as the Fédération Internationale de Natation Swimming World Cup Hong Kong, Boccia International Sports Federation Asia and Oceania Championships - Hong Kong, Asian Judo Championships and I Baseball Federation of Asia Women's Baseball Asian Cup. Subsidies also went towards supporting the NSAs in strengthening squad training and in helping athletes representing Hong Kong take part in overseas competitions.

To enhance the corporate governance of NSAs, the department organised a symposium for over 200 representatives from 63 NSAs and related organisations in March. It also conducted five seminars as induction training for all NSA office-bearers and senior staff members to familiarise themselves with the responsibilities of NSA board members.

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