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In response to media enquiries, a Home Affairs Bureau spokesman said today (September 18) the Government invests heavily in strengthening cultural software.
"We invest no less than $880 million directly into arts groups and programmes, of which close to $220 million is allocated to the nine flagship performing companies per year," the spokesman said.
"To encourage the flagship companies to engage in more outreach and outbound activities, on top of their baseline allocation, they are allocated an additional $45 million a year for 2008/09 and 2009/10. The $45 million extra allocation is one-off in nature. In accordance with the normal cycle for allocating extra resources to sustain past initiatives, whether similar allocation is forthcoming will not be known until later in the year.
"Funding the flagships is only one of the many means to build our cultural software. We are also committed to building the capacity of our performing arts companies, including the small and budding groups; building a wider audience base; targeting young people especially, and strengthening arts education and manpower training."
Ends/Friday, September 18, 2009
Issued at HKT 19:17
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