The Home Affairs Bureau announced today an additional $8 million will be provided annually to the Hong Kong Sports Institute to help more athletes receive full-time training.

Half the recurrent fund is for direct financial support for athletes and the rest is for strengthening the institute's elite training programme.

The bureau currently allocates $130 million in recurrent funding to the institute for elite training.

In July the Government invested $8.5 million as a one-off start-up fund for the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong to implement the Hong Kong Athletes Career & Education Programme, which provides athletes support to pursue higher education and vocational development when they retire. Together with other sponsorships, the fund has now reached $14 million.

The bureau has also reached consensus with eight University Grants Committee funded institutions to strengthen their academic support for elite athletes.

Shue Yan University, the Institute of Vocational Education and the Chu Hai College of Higher Education will also provide assistance.

The Government will spend $1.8 billion in the redevelopment of the sports institute. More than $1 billion has been spent on new venues and upgrading facilities for the East Asian Games next year.

The total operational expenditure for the games is $240 million. A total of $63 million sponsorship has so far been received.