At present, vacant government sites or school premises managed by Lands Department (“LandsD”) or other relevant authorities are available for use by non-government organisations (“NGOs”) through short-term tenancies (“STTs”). However, since these sites may have been left idle for some time, restoration or other engineering works are required before they can be put to use. To optimise the use of these sites, this Funding Scheme (“the Funding Scheme”) is set up, with $1 billion earmarked by Financial Secretary in 2018-19 Budget and approved by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council, to provide NGOs with financial and technical support to make such vacant sites/school premises on government land fit for a variety of short-term community, institutional, or other non-profit making uses.
Key details
Max amount per application
HK$60,000,000
Grant type
Project-based Funding
Application submission type
Open Year-Round
Expected processing time
6 months
Eligibility
Only for Section 88 charities
Categories
Public and Societal Benefit
Target beneficiaries
Other
Other beneficiary
NGO's
Areas of focus
Community ServiceNGO RelatedSustainable Development
Grant conditions & requirements
1. The applicant should be an NGO which has already secured in-principle approval from LandsD or other relevant authorities under the existing mechanism1 for renting a vacant government site or school premises on a short-term basis.
2. The applicant should meet the following requirement –
(a) it should be a charitable institution or trust of a public character exempt from tax under section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112); or a company incorporated under the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622) or the former Companies Ordinance (Cap. 32) as limited by guarantee whose objects and powers do not include distribution of profits to members; or a non-profit-making society registered or body established under any legislation in Hong Kong; or
(b) it should take the form of a social enterprise, which should be –
(i) an institution listed under the “Social Enterprise Directory” compiled by the Social Enterprise Business Centre (https://socialenterprise.org.hk/en/sedb); or
(ii) a social enterprise accredited by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Social Enterprises (http://seemark.hk/en_gb/).
3. For the avoidance of doubt, the Funding Scheme is open to application from NGOs which have secured approval or at least in-principle approval for the grant of STT on or after the announcement of this initiative in the 2018-19 Budget on 28 February 2018 for the use of vacant government sites (including vacant school premises on government land) and where works have yet to commence.
4. When there is any doubt about the eligibility of an NGO-applicant, the decision of the inter-departmental Assessment Committee (“the Assessment Committee”) is final.
