Mr Darwin Chen, Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (ADC), welcomes today's government response to the Culture and Heritage Commission (CHC) Policy Recommendation Report.

Mr Chen says, the views of the arts community were taken seriously by the Government in their response today. He hopes that the recommendations will soon be implemented to create a favourable environment for the development of the arts and culture in Hong Kong. In line with the establishment of the West Kowloon Cultural District, it will help turn Hong Kong into an Asia World City.

As a statutory body for promoting the arts and cultural development in Hong Kong, the ADC initiated 12 consultative forums through its ten artform chairpersons including dance, drama, xiqu, music, visual arts, literary, film and media, arts administration, arts criticism and arts education, to collect views and opinions of the arts community. The views collected both from the arts community and the ADC were then submitted to Dr Patrick Ho, Secretary for Home Affairs, last December.

In its position paper to the Government, the ADC suggested setting up a high-level body with community participation to oversee the arts and cultural development in Hong Kong. In addition to the CHC's recommendations on forming the Library and Museum Management Committees, the ADC also suggested establishing a committee to manage venues and performing arts. Mr Chen welcomes the government's positive response to ADC's suggestions. He appeals to the government to involve the participation of the arts community in the proposed advisory committees. A comprehensive subsidy mechanism should be considered to ensure a promising future for the arts and cultural development.

On arts education, the ADC advocated to broaden the scope of the school curriculum to include various art forms such as drama, xiqu and dance. Mr Chen is pleased to learn that the government will encourage schools to introduce more art forms with a view to extending the scope of art learning.

The Council will further consider the government response to the CHC's report.