Additional resources and the planned redevelopment of the Hong Kong Sports Institute will offer concrete assistance to top athletes, the Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing said today.

Speaking at the institute's soft opening, Mr Tsang said the 2010-11 Budget proposed to inject $3 billion into the Arts & Sport Development Fund as seed money. The annual investment return of the Fund will be used to strengthen existing support for sport, including funding athletes' preparation for and participation in major international sports events, and providing more resources to various sports including team sports.

"We have increased our support to the institute in 2009/10, by allocating an extra $40 million to sponsor athletes directly, a further $4.4 million on top of this recurrent amount to strengthen the training of our elite athletes, and an additional $3.4 million to train young athletes, particularly to help them to prepare for the Youth Olympics in Singapore this August," he said.

The Government has also allocated $17 million to help athletes prepare for the Guangzhou Asian Games in November.