White Collar | Sponsorship goal for Hong Kong Arts Festival a tall order amid market uncertainty

Corporate sponsorship of the city's biggest annual arts event has doubled in the past 10 years. While increased support from companies reflects a greater willingness to promote arts, the state of the economy remains a factor in corporate largesse.

The budget for next year's 43rd Hong Kong Arts Festival - which will feature more than 100 shows from artists around the world in February and March - will reach about HK$112 million.

In line with traditional practice, taxpayers will finance 30 per cent of the festival and 40 per cent will come from box-office sales. Corporate and individual sponsors and donors will cover the rest.

That means HK$34.23 million is likely to have to come from companies this year - 7 per cent more than last year's haul and about double the HK$17.13 million raised in 2006.

This target is a bit aggressive considering that the stock market's average daily turnover of HK$65.68 billion in the first nine months of this year was up only about 5 per cent from a year ago. The Hang Seng Index is basically flat in the year to date.

The Occupy Central movement has also cast a cloud over the outlook for the economy and may diminish companies' willingness to sponsor arts events.

A long delay to plans to link the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets for cross-border trading would also hurt investor sentiment.