Hong Kong has gathered over 16,000 volunteers for the National Games.
At a pledging ceremony, tourism minister Rosanna Law Shuk-pui encouraged the volunteers to be welcoming to visitors. The volunteers are aged 15 to 80. They will support the city as a co-host for the Games in November.
“Our 16,000 volunteers are our frontline troops as tourism ambassadors. Our hope rests upon you all,” Law said in a speech.
Around 200 judges chose the volunteers from about 30,000 applications.
The volunteers include 15,000 adults and 1,000 young people.
The Jockey Club donated HK$450 million to support the city as a co-host. Of that amount, HK$121 million will pay for volunteer training, subsidies, food, uniforms and data management.
Two ambassadors have been chosen for the volunteers. They are Olympic gold medal fencer Vivian Kong Man-wai and former athlete Lee Kwok-shing.
The Games will run from November 9 to 21. Hong Kong will host eight of the 34 total sports.
