Dozens of NGOs will see cuts to their government funding in the coming years as the administration tries to balance its books, Welfare Secretary Chris Sun said on Thursday.

Funding for about a third of the 177 NGOs that receive government support will be reduced by 2 percent in the 2025/26 fiscal year, and by another three percent in the following year.

Speaking to reporters after attending an event, Sun said it will be the larger organisations that are affected by the cuts.

"We'll follow a principle of helping the small-and-medium sized NGOs as best as we can," he said.

"We define these organisations as those with less than HK$50 million of annual funding, and we have calculated that these involve 119 organisations, accounting for about two thirds of all the groups that we're funding. They won't need to face a funding cut.”

Sun said officials have explained the situation to the NGOs affected and he believes the groups understand that the government is striving to offer as much help as it can to the social welfare sector.

In his recent budget address, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said all government departments will have to reduce their recurrent spending by 1 percent in the next fiscal year.