Budget Speech by the Financial Secretary (8)

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Creative Industries

133. Hong Kong people are talented. Our vision is to engage creative and energetic people to develop their potential in our city, and to shape Hong Kong into a trend-setting creative hub as well as a metropolis rich in arts and culture.

134. Over the past ten years, the Government allocated $1.52 billion in total for the Create Smart Initiative (CSI) and the Film Development Fund to support the development of creative industries. We have also consolidated part of the resources of the CSI with other resources to provide a total of $500 million for the development of the fashion industry.

135. Our efforts are bearing fruits. The Design Incubation Programme has provided support to 181 start-ups, which have won over 50 international design awards. Last year, the HKTDC hosted the inaugural CENTRESTAGE, an annual international fashion event showcasing the latest collections and designs presented by some 200 fashion brands. The event attracted some 8 300 buyers.

136. The Animation Support Programme has provided support to 65 start-ups or SMEs. Some of these companies won Asia-Pacific awards in the DigiCon6 Asia hosted by the Japanese television broadcaster TBS while a company was also engaged by the international brand Prada for producing a multimedia animated commercial.

137. We have also sponsored a programme for supporting advertising and music talents. Sixty-six start-ups have benefited so far and one of them, being the only company engaged by Disney outside the US, worked for the advertising production for the film "Star Wars".

138. Over the past decade, we have provided financing or subsidy to over 40 films. These films together won about 100 prizes in different film festivals, showcasing their spectacular achievements.

139. 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. We will sponsor or organise a series of celebration events to showcase the robust development of Hong Kong's creative industries to our community and countries around the world. We will sponsor design exhibitions to be staged in Hong Kong, five Mainland and three overseas cities to present and promote our design industry. We will also organise thematic Hong Kong film shows in ten cities in North America, Europe and Asia to highlight the achievements of Hong Kong's film industry.

140. In addition, we will sponsor exhibitions to be staged locally and in Europe on the works of Hong Kong comic artists, a locally-held response exhibition of the Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition and the organisation of fashion shows. These events will help present the accomplishments of various domains of our creative industries in a multi-faceted manner.

Arts and Culture

141. Hong Kong has long been a melting pot of eastern and western cultures. Our inclusiveness and diversity are evidenced by our arts and culture. I believe that many of us are excited about the commissioning of various cultural facilities in the next few years. Apart from the expansion of the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the construction of the East Kowloon Cultural Centre, various facilities in the West Kowloon Cultural District, including the Xiqu Centre, Art Park, Freespace and M+ Museum, will also be completed in the coming few years.

142. Recurrent expenditure on arts and culture exceeds $4 billion for 2017-18, an increase of over 30 per cent as compared with 2012-13. This will mainly be incurred for art education and promotion, venue support for art activities and subventions for art groups. The recurrent subvention for the nine major performing art groups alone has increased by about ten per cent over the same period. To nurture small and medium performing art groups as well as budding artists, the Government has implemented the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme since 2011 and funded a total of 73 projects in the past five rounds of application. In addition, an Art Development Matching Grants Pilot Scheme was launched last year to provide matching grants to art groups and art organisations of different sizes and at different development stages for the amount of donations they raised, with a view to widening their sources of funding and encouraging community support for art and cultural development. Matching grants approved under the first round of the scheme will be disbursed this year.

143. We will continue to support the exchange activities and performances of art groups and artists through the regular funding schemes of the Home Affairs Bureau and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. To complement the celebration activities for the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Government will allocate additional resources in 2017-18 to support more local art groups and artists to perform in major overseas and Mainland cities to showcase our cultural strength.

(To be continued.)

Ends/Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Issued at HKT 12:29

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