The Home Affairs Bureau says the Government's investment in strengthening cultural software is huge, injecting $880 million directly into arts groups and programmes, of which $220 million is allocated to the nine flagship performing companies annually.

Responding to media enquiries tonight, the bureau 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 cultural software, the bureau said, adding the Government is also committed to building the capacity of performing arts companies, building a wider audience base, and strengthening arts education and manpower training.