The Hong Kong sports industry has had a lot of good things recently. First, the Hong Kong team achieved record-breaking results of one gold, two silvers and three bronzes in the Tokyo Olympics. It can be seen that the "elitism" has achieved initial results; and the State Council last week approved Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau to co-organize the event. The next National Games-to promote the "grand event" to a new level; during the period, Chief Executive Carrie Lam also announced five new measures to support sports, determined to promote "industrialization."
However, the most basic "universalization" has not seen strong support.
Professor Liu Yongsong of the Department of Physical Education, Sports and Health of Baptist University pointed out in an interview with "Hong Kong 01" that sports development cannot only be a short-term project, but a long-term plan.
Professor Liu Yongsong of the Department of Physical Education, Sports and Health of Baptist University pointed out in an interview with "Hong Kong 01" that sports development cannot only be a short-term project, but a long-term plan.
(Photo by Ou Jiale)
Can't just do short-term projects
"In addition to the breakthrough of Hong Kong's elite sports performance this time, it is time to make a short, medium and long-term strategic layout to examine the plan for the discovery of potential athletes in terms of financial resource allocation, administrative structure efficiency, mass sports participation and mutual support among elites. , Reading and employment arrangements for athletes after retirement, elite sports training facilities, coach internationalization and local elite coach training, opportunities and support to participate in international top-level competitions, sports science research development and cooperation, media support and sponsorship development, etc., must Establishing a permanent five-year plan to produce a pillar-style training system to enable Hong Kong athletes to continue their superior performance and spirit.” On the eve of the Tokyo Olympics closing, Liu Yongsong wrote an article on the Hong Kong Radio Television program "Hong Kong Family Letters", appealing The SAR government and major stakeholders in the sports sector cherish the opportunity to reform sports policies in order to continue the glory of the Hong Kong Olympics.
Three days later, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced five new measures to support the development of sports, including speeding up the construction of a new sports academy building costing 990 million yuan, establishing a 300 million yuan joint venture with the Jockey Club to establish a "capacity enhancement fund", and reviewing sports courses and extracurricular activities. The Eighth National Congress of the People's Republic of China is required to provide flexible learning arrangements for athletes and discuss the development of the sports industry and manpower needs.
Afterwards, Liu Yongsong accepted an exclusive interview with "Hong Kong 01". He was pleased to see that the Hong Kong government is actively promoting sports development, but he also emphasized that we should not only do short-term projects, but must have a five-year plan.
Liu Yongsong explained that he used the "Sports Policy Factors Leading to International Sporting Success" (SPLISS model) to measure the five major measures.
The SPLISS model is a nine +1 key element designed by Belgian scholar De Bosscher after referring to multiple national sports policies. It includes financial support, administrative structure integration, balanced public participation and elite development, talent selection and training system, athletes' career and retirement Later support, training hardware facilities, coach training, bidding for domestic and foreign competitions, sports science research, and private support.
Liu Yongsong believes that the five measures have already covered some elements to a certain extent. For example, reviewing physical education courses and extracurricular activities can not only increase the participation of mass sports, but also discover and cultivate more potential athletes for elite sports. The addition of new buildings to the Sports Institute will allow the sports infrastructure to keep pace with the times and improve the quality and quantity of training equipment: "These five measures (for the sports industry) are very valuable projects, but we emphasize the need for a five-year plan. These are just short-term projects, not enough."
The Hong Kong team achieved record-breaking results of one gold, two silvers and three bronzes in the Tokyo Olympics, which aroused public attention to the prospects of Hong Kong's sports.
(Photo by Zhang Haowei)
Must have long-term planning
The concept of the "five-year plan" originated from the national economic plan of the former Soviet Union, and was promoted by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to promote economic development step by step.
Since 1950, the Mainland has also followed the "Five-Year Plan" in social construction in different areas, including when it returned to the International Olympic Committee in 1979, it also reviewed and formulated sports development goals and measures every five years.
The SAR government is accustomed to using the "free market" to promote development, so it is not good at taking the lead in planning and leading policies. However, Liu Yongsong pointed out that from the country's sports development after 1984, it can be seen that the effect of formulating long-term plans is very satisfactory.
For example, since 1995, the three rolling "Olympic Honors Programs" issued by the State Sports Commission (now the State General Administration of Sports) have all formulated different goals and policies in response to different social situations, supplemented by the practice of different policies-first The first plan (1994-2000) focused on the reform of the management mechanism, the increase of athletes, and the improvement of group rankings; the second (2001-2010) was to improve the scientific working mechanism through the layout and management of sports events And reasonable rules and regulations, while strengthening the management and training of the national team, increasing the investment in advantageous projects, and improving the selection mechanism of sports talents; the third (from 2011 to 2020) is to maintain the growth of gold medals, develop projects in a balanced manner, and improve sports The overall quality of talents, deepening the reform of the competitive sports system, and exploring the development path of professional sports with Chinese characteristics-one of the most obvious changes is that the total number of medals has increased from 50 in 1996 to 88 in 2021.
It is worth mentioning that each plan will emphasize that the development of sports competition can promote the construction of socialist material civilization and spiritual civilization, thereby promoting the national fitness movement.
Liu Yongsong believes that if Hong Kong can refer to the national experience and formulate a "five-year plan" for sports development to improve the use of sports science, competition opportunities, training level, etc., it will be possible to continue the success of the Tokyo Olympics in the future.
He also mentioned that although the Hong Kong Institute of Sport currently has a "five-year plan", it only focuses on internal elite training, which is not sufficient for Hong Kong as a whole, because "elite development involves not only training and hiring coaches, but also other supporting facilities. For example, policies, decisions to hold large-scale events, national sports as a way to find potential athletes. National sports and elite development are complementary, for example, the more people play table tennis, the higher the level of table tennis in the country, the more people they can choose. many."
On the eve of the Tokyo Olympics, Chief Executive Carrie Lam presided over the flag-giving ceremony of the Hong Kong team delegation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
She later proposed five new measures to promote sports development.
(Chief Executive's Office)
The government takes the lead
The national "Olympic Glory Plan" is a programmatic document led by the General Administration of Sport of A comprehensive sports policy plan is believed to be impossible with a sports academy alone.
Liu Yongsong believes that it is necessary for the SAR government to establish a "centralized coordination agency" specifically responsible for formulating and implementing sports policies, namely the Sports Bureau, to lead the development of sports.
He explained that there are already "troikas" of sports associations, sports institutes, Hong Kong Association and Olympic Committee leading the development of sports. In addition, the Sports Committee under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department will provide expert advice to the government, but they have a lot of work. There is overlap, including financial allocation, coaching resources, etc.-Take the National Sports Association and the Sports Academy as examples. They need to hold different sports courses in community centers, schools and other places to find potential athletes, and then hand them over to the Sports Academy for training; therefore , An organization responsible for overall planning and coordination is needed.
In fact, during the tenure of former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, he has proposed to review the sports development policy. In 2016, he opened a directorate-level administrative officer (D3) in charge of coordinating and implementing policies in the Home Affairs Bureau, "Sports Commissioner". Commissioner Yang Deqiang was also the first commissioner.
However, Liu Yongsong pointed out, "Under the structure of the sports commissioner, there may not be financial resources and talents to conduct reviews. He may be a structure that can handle the current situation, but it cannot handle five-year, ten-year, or even longer development plans. "
In addition to the establishment of the Sports Bureau to lead the development of sports, what kind of value support, guiding ideology, work policy, goals and tasks should be formulated for the development of sports in Hong Kong are also issues that the authorities must think about.
For example, in order to win more medals in a short period of time, the SAR government often has a kind of "inertial thinking" and always likes to refer to "foreign experience", but only "knows it but does not know why", and in the end it becomes out of reality to follow suit. , The result was counterproductive.
Liu Yongsong also reminded that the formulation of sports policies needs to be "adjusted to the situation" and "different from person to person", because each country or region has different environmental, physical, cultural, geographical, and spatial restrictions, and Hong Kong can choose from. There are not too many reference objects-not only the performance must be stable and outstanding, but also the social, economic and cultural environment should be similar, and the administrative organization structure should be similar.
Based on this, he suggested that Hong Kong should refer to Japan and South Korea’s practices, because the education system is similar to Hong Kong’s, and parents’ discipline and values tend to be academic. “However, cities such as Seoul and Tokyo also perform well in sports. Sports space and facilities. Whether in promoting public participation or elite sports training, they will have a more focused development." In Seoul, there is a "Korea Sports Promotion Foundation" (KSPO for short). ) Organization, responsible for all projects related to the development of elite sports, public participation, school planning and so on.
Hong Kong is still not enough with measures to "popularize" sports.
(Photo by Liang Pengwei)
Seize the opportunity to expand the industrialization of sports
After the Hong Kong team won an unprecedented six medals in the Tokyo Olympics, many people advocated that the Hong Kong government should promote the "industrialization" of sports development on the basis of "popularization, elitism, and event-oriented"; however, Liu Yongsong pointed out "Sports" itself covers the nature of "education". What the authorities should do is to "sports industrialization" rather than "sports industrialization" to form a combination of related products, including tangible and intangible products-the former includes sports Shoes, sportswear, sports equipment, rackets, sports facilities, etc.; the latter includes sports managers, patent rights, sponsorship systems, sports tourism, marketing, etc.
Liu Yongsong said that from 2015 to 2020, the GDP of the global sports industry is approximately HKD 150,000 to USD 20 trillion, with an average annual growth rate of 5-6%, which shows that the industrialization of sports is a major global trend in the future.
"As human lives get longer and longer, what they demand more is not survival, but health. Healthy living habits are closely related to sports, and industrialization naturally has opportunities for development, especially in countries with relatively advanced economic development, including Hong Kong. "But he believes that Hong Kong has a problem-the market is small, so to achieve the industrialization of sports, we must look at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Greater China Cultural Circle, including Vietnam, Taiwan, Singapore and other places.
He suggested that the government take the lead, "but not to make money for sports stars. Just leave economic activities to businesses. The government acts as a leader and convenes interested businesses to discuss such as forming a sports industry chain."
As for the State Council’s recent announcement that Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong will host the 15th National Games in 2025, Liu Yongsong believes that this plan will be of great help to Hong Kong’s future sports development: "To host a high-level event, Hong Kong’s financial costs are very high. Yes, but it is an advantage to be shared by the three regions. Usually, as a host city, there must be some experience in organizing, which can enable local professionals who organize large-scale international events to get sufficient training and opportunities." He believes that Hong Kong is expected to In order to enhance the status of the international sports arena, it is even more necessary to formulate a "five-year plan" to train more athletes to achieve better results.
He also mentioned that Hong Kong's proximity to Guangdong, Shenzhen and other places should take advantage of it to get more athletes to train in the mainland.
Liu Yongsong suggested the establishment of a sports bureau specifically responsible for formulating and implementing sports policies.
(Photo by Ou Jiale)
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