The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has granted a total of 1.5 million HK dollars (US$192,000) for tsunami relief work in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, a government press release said Monday.

The government has accepted the advice of the Disaster Relief Fund Advisory Committee and approved a grant of 500,000 HK dollars (US$64,100) to Cedar Fund to provide relief aid to tsunami victims in India and another two grants each of 500,000 HK dollars to the Association of Chinese Evangelical Ministry Ltd for its tsunami relief work in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

The committee hopes the grants will help provide relief to tsunami victims in these countries. To ensure that the money will be used for the designated purposes, the committee will ask Cedar Fund and the Association of Chinese Evangelical Ministry Ltd to submit evaluation reports and audited accounts on the use of the grant after completion of the relief projects.

So far, the Disaster Relief Fund Advisory Committee has approved nine applications from five relief agencies to carry out relief work in tsunami-struck countries. The total amount of grants made amounts to 22.5 million HK dollars (US$2.88 million).

The Disaster Relief Fund was established in December 1993 for emergency disaster relief in places outside Hong Kong. The Disaster Relief Fund Advisory Committee is responsible for advising the government on the policy and practices regarding the disbursement of funds for disaster relief, advising on specific amounts to specific recipients, and monitoring the use of grants.
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2005)