Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District CEO on a mission to beat money woes, says arts hub was ‘jumping on one leg’
- Dire financial situation greeted former civil servant when she took helm of massive project in 2021
- Cost-cutting helped trim losses to HK$718 million in March, but arts hub is not out of the woods yet
Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee was shocked when she became chief executive officer of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in late 2021, managing the city’s newest arts landmarks.
The former civil servant was staggered by the state of the statutory body’s finances. The more she checked, the more worried she became.
“When I took over, it was the worst, worst time ever,” she recalled.
Mandated to get the authority’s financial health and operations on the right track, she found that it only had enough cash to last until the end of 2023.
“As I began zooming into the finances of the authority, it was really scary,” she told the Post in an interview.
The government had long made clear it was unlikely to inject any fresh funding after pumping in HK$21.6 billion (US$2.8 billion) in 2008 to create an endowment.
The 40-hectare (99 acres) arts hub, one of the world’s largest cultural precincts, has been in the works since the 1990s, but its first landmark attraction, the contemporary art museum M+, opened only in 2021.
