A three-year plan to improve the governance of the city’s national sports associations was launched on Thursday with the formation of the Sports Governance and Integrity Alliance, which aims to develop Hong Kong into a mega sports events capital with clean and professional governance.
The group – comprising the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China (SF&OC), Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), and the Hong Kong Chartered Governance Institute (HKCGI) – is the first of its kind in the city.
It will provide legal and accounting services to help fight corruption and will also offer tailor-made professional qualification courses in sports governance for board members and senior management of national sports associations (NSAs).
The Jockey Club had approved a donation of more than HK$31 million from its Charities Trust to launch and support its Capacity Building Programme for Sports Governance and the HKCGI Sports Governance Programme, both of which the alliance will oversee.
To be run by the Olympic Committee and institute, respectively, the two programmes will train 1,200 professionals in sports governance across all 85 NSAs, enhancing expertise in the sector and ensuring best practices are integrated into each of the governing bodies.
Speaking at the launch ceremony at the ICAC Headquarters, Rosanna Law Shuk-pui, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, said she had high expectations for sports governance and hoped the city’s NSAs would make good use of the platform to improve the level of governance.
