Hong Kong's Financial Secretary Paul Chan started to deliver his budget speech to the Legislative Council at 11 a.m. today (Feb. 23) via video link.
To consolidate Hong Kong's role as an East‑meets‑West center for international arts and cultural exchange, Chan said that the Government will allocate HK$42 million for organizing the first Hong Kong Performing Arts Market within two years. The large‑scale arts market, which is designed for the performing arts industry, will serve as an integrated platform for showcasing the works of top‑notch performing artists and arts groups from the Mainland, Hong Kong and overseas. This will help bring the remarkable performing arts of the Mainland and Hong Kong onto the world stage through activities such as exhibitions, forums, focus discussions, performances and trading. The event will also facilitate exchanges between renowned overseas performing artists as well as arts groups and their counterparts in the Mainland and Hong Kong.
In addition, the integration of arts and technology has become a new trend. In 2020, the Government set aside HK$100 million to promote the integration of arts and technology by providing support to arts groups and I&T talent. To further facilitate arts technology development, the Government will allocate HK$30 million to implement an Arts Technology Funding Pilot Scheme in the next financial year with the aim of encouraging the nine major performing arts groups to apply arts technology to enrich their stage production. An additional amount of HK$10 million will also be injected into the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme in order to encourage small and medium-sized arts groups to further explore the use of arts technology under the scheme.
The East Kowloon Cultural Centre is expected to be commissioned in phases next year. The Government will earmark HK$85 million each year to support its development into a major arts technology venue and incubator for the provision of structured training. The Government will also set aside HK$70 million to upgrade the facilities of the performing venues under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, with a view to enabling arts groups to further apply technology in their performances, thereby enhancing audience experience.
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