Stay active, healthy and happy
5 August 2018
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This summer, the city is immersed in a vibrant sporting atmosphere as exciting events are lining up one after another!
The 18th Asian Games to be held in Indonesia from 18 August to 2 September comes on the heels of the four-yearly FIFA World Cup, which concluded just last month. The Chief Executive attended last week’s flag presentation ceremony hosted by the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China for the Hong Kong delegation to the Games. This year, 580 athletes will represent Hong Kong to compete in 36 sports. Together with team doctors, officials and other delegate members, they form a nearly 800-strong delegation, the largest on record, and will strive to go beyond the remarkable achievement of bagging six gold, 12 silver and 25 bronze medals at the last Games.
The Hong Kong teams are made up of the best of the best. The 580 athletes comprising 320 men and 260 women include many budding young sportsmen. Fourteen-year-old CHAN Lam, who will participate in diving events, is the youngest on the list. Team members of paragliding, roller skate, softball, sport climbing and bridge will be making their debut in the five events. The football team and hockey team, with 40 and 36 members respectively, make up the largest groups while the swimming team and handball team also have a strong line-up of 32 members each.
Our athletes will take on the world to win glory for Hong Kong. I wish them great success in the competitions to show our city’s can-do spirit and drive for excellence. Let us all join hands to cheer them on.
Committed to sports development, the current-term Government has allocated resources to support elite sports on an on-going basis. The initiatives include the injection of $6 billion into the Elite Athletes Development Fund and the launch of a five-year development programme to provide $130 million for the relevant national sports associations of team ball games to devise and implement training programmes for Hong Kong representative teams to compete in the Asian Games. There are now 460 full-time elite athletes in Hong Kong, a substantial increase of 136% when compared with six years ago.
We have been encouraging people of all ages and levels of ability, including persons with disabilities, to participate in sports. More resources have been invested in sports for persons with disabilities in recent years. The estimated expenditure for 2018-19 is $70 million, up by more than 50% over the last financial year. The provision will be used in, among others, supporting athletes with disabilities in preparing for and participating in major international or national games, and organising large-scale local sports events for them.
Sports are not just for athletes. Apart from elite sports, sports for the general public are also promoted with government funding. At present, the largest portion of our recurrent expenditure on sports development goes to promoting sports in the community. Standing at about $4.8 billion, it accounted for over 86% of the overall spending on sports in 2017-18.
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Amid the rising sports fervour in town, the Government is spreading the message of sports for all to every district. Today, I took part in the Sport For All Day 2018 organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD). On this special day, various LCSD leisure facilities across the territory, including public swimming pools, were open to the public free of charge. Free recreation and sports programmes were also offered to encourage the public to participate in sports and develop the habit of regular exercise, thereby building a sporting culture in our community. As the event slogan goes, “Stay Active, Healthy and Happy!” I hope that you will make regular exercise a habit, just like what I am doing. Exercising for at least half an hour a day benefits both your body and mind!
Last year’s Sport For All Day attracted more than 230 000 participants, including over 36 000 people participating in free recreation and sports programmes and nearly 200 000 people enjoying free leisure facilities.
To promote wider participation in sports, the Government organises various training programmes and sports events for schools and the community, such as the School Sports Programme, the biennial Hong Kong Games, the Corporate Games and the Masters Games. In 2018-19, the LCSD will host about 38 500 community recreation activities, offering about 2.34 million activity places with an estimated expenditure of $189 million.
Tomorrow (6 August) I will attend the flag presentation ceremony of a football exchange programme sponsored by “We Like HK”. To enhance the standard of football in China and Hong Kong, the Beijing Football Association and the Hong Kong Football Association will send young players from Beijing and Hong Kong to receive training in Iceland, a rising star in international football, under an exchange programme.
Iceland has a population of just about 300 000, similar to that of the Yau Tsim Mong district in Hong Kong, and yet it has a rather high ranking in the international football arena. After its historic entry into the quarter-final of the UEFA European Championship in 2016, Iceland’s national football team stunned the world again this year at the World Cup 2018 in Russia when it reached the finals for the first time and became the least populated nation ever to have done so. This success was not achieved by luck and it makes Iceland a legend in the global football scene. It is therefore a golden opportunity for Hong Kong’s young footballers to learn from the Icelandic players through this exchange programme.
With the collaboration and concerted efforts of the Government and various sectors – be it in nurturing elite athletes, promoting sports for all, or strengthening sports infrastructure and community facilities – we can definitely achieve much more in our sports development. Let us work together to make Hong Kong a healthy, sporty and energetic metropolis!
