The Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau announced on Saturday that starting from next year, the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund will adopt a fixed operation cycle to accept applications thrice annually.

This comes as the authority unveiled the enhancement to the fund's operation to boost the sector's development more effectively, as well as promote tourism,

A matching grant will be rolled out to encourage organisers to seek commercial funding.

The government will also assess the effectiveness of events based on one more criterion - its integration with tourism.

Applicants also need to ensure that events can boost tourism and the economy.

The authority will provide funding for a maximum of four events each round, and it aims to support at most 10 projects each year.

The fund was set up back in April last year. It has so far sponsored 20 large-scale arts and cultural events.