The campaign is organized by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), Home Affairs Department, 18 district councils, the Community Chest of Hong Kong and Agency for Volunteer Service.

The Sale of Donated Books is held Sunday at four different venues. All books were sold at 5 HK dollars (US$64 cents) each with the proceeds donated to the Community Chest of Hong Kong.

Speaking at the kick-off ceremony, Paul Leung, director of leisure and cultural services of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said the LCSD has been promoting reading and encouraging public to read more books for enrichment.

He said that in addition to providing library service, the LCSD has organized various community activities including "Library Carnival", "Joy of Reading on Sundays" and Book Donation & Sale Campaign to enable the public to experience the fun and pleasure of reading.

He added that the campaign was very meaningful as the public could share their books with others and support recycling as well as participate in charity to help the needy.

Since the launch of the event, the response from the public is very encouraging and about 140,000 books are collected.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2002)