The Executive Council has conditionally agreed to a funding proposal to allow the cash-strapped West Kowloon arts hub to sell some of its land parcels to ease a financial shortfall.

The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority will be allowed to sell residential developments within Zone 2 of the site and keep all proceeds received from tenders to private developers.

This means the development of residential blocks in the zone will no longer be restricted by the “Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) only" model adopted since 2016.

Culture minister Kevin Yeung on Wednesday said the plan will help the hub stay afloat for at least a decade.

"In the past few years, with very great effort of the authority, the BOT tender did not seem to meet with the appetites of the contractors or developers in Hong Kong," he said.

"Instead of having a constant stream of income in the many years in future, we are now cashing in for a lump sum upfront, which could help release the financial challenges or the requirement at present."

The authority will have to meet certain requirements, including a triennial cap on operating deficits and a cap on the percentage of staff costs in relation to the total annual operating expenditure.

The body's chairman, Henry Tang, said they can now avoid "drastic" cost-cutting measures such as reducing the number of days each week that the M+ museum is open.

Tang added that the authority will come up with ways to boost income without adding to the strain on the public coffers.

"We will continue to operate as we have always done under a discipline that we only spend what we need to spend and we will control our costs diligently and very seriously," he said.

"There are ways that I can make more revenue without disrupting the operations of the museums and I will look for ways to do that."

Responding to the funding arrangement and its financial woes, DAB lawmaker Vincent Cheng said the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority should explore more sources of income.

"The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority or the CSTB (Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau) has to do more to make this hub an international culture arts hub," he told RTHK.

"At this moment, we don't see they have a lot of different kinds of income, no matter the ticketing, renting the places... We do think there're a lot of different opportunities. So we hope that the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority do explore more different kinds of income strategies."
_____________________________
Last updated: 2024-07-17 HKT 21:22