Bulletin

First Round of applications to the Sustainable Development Fund

By the closing date for the first round of applications to the Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) on 1 December 2003, the Council for Sustainable Development (CSD) received over 120 applications applying for total grants exceeding $130 million. The Vetting Committee (VC) of the CSD's Education and Publicity Sub-committee (EPSC) met on 28 January 2004 and made initial recommendations on the applications. Having considered the recommendations made by the VC in two meetings held on 6 February and 9 March 2004, the EPSC recommended that eight applications be approved. As six of the applications were for more than $500,000, they required the consideration of the full CSD. At the meeting on 22 March 2004, the CSD advised that these six applications be approved. The Director of Administration subsequently approved the award of grants for the eight projects, at a total budgeted cost of $7.75 million.

The Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) held a press conference to announce the results formally on 6 May 2004.