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Promoting development of Hong Kong’s e-sports industry

A gist of the blog:

I attended a few days ago the opening ceremony of the e-Sports & Music Festival Hong Kong organised by Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB). More than 7.4 million viewers watched online broadcast of e-sports matches of the first-ever Festival held last year, and the event has received extensive local and international media coverage. Last year’s Festival indirectly generated publicity value of over $150 million worldwide and helped reinforce Hong Kong's image as the events capital of Asia. HKTB estimated that 80,000 visitors, including many from overseas, will be joining this year’s Festival and bringing more businesses for relevant sectors including catering, hotels and the retail industry.

For the first time, E-sports has been featured as a demonstration sport at the Asian Games 2018 currently held in Jakarta, Indonesia. E-sports will also be included as a medal event at next Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2022. In this year’s Asian Games, Hong Kong is sending six athletes to compete in four of the e-sports events.

In this year’s Budget, I have allocated $100 million to promote the development of Hong Kong’s e-sports industry. In which $50 million will be used to establish a well-equipped local e-sports and digital entertainment node in Cyberport Arcade for organising small to medium scale competitions and training sessions. The remaining $50 million will be used to support the development of the industry, including organising local and regional competitions and major events, training programmes and promotional activities. Cyberport will also strengthen nurturing start-ups and talent related to e-sports development.

I believe that with suitable guidance, such as support from schools and welfare organisations, young people can strike a balance among interests, learning and living, and turn their hobbies into careers. E-sports can offer more opportunities for young people and facilitate diversification of Hong Kong’s economy.

August 26, 2018