The Sports and Olympic Committee of Macau, China held the awarding ceremony of the“Bank of China Scholarship Awards for Macao Elite Athletes in 2017 / 2018”on the 8th of November at the Macau Tower Convention & Entertainment Centre. A total number of 79 athletes from 12 sports associations were awarded the scholarships, which amounted to 1.2 million Macao Patacas. Ma Iao Hang, President of the Council of the Sports and Olympic Committee, stated that it was worth awarding the athletes who had beecn working hard and demonstrating good skills and ethical conducts. They had set good examples for Macao's young athletes. 

To incentivize and reward the Macao athletes who have achieved excellent results in large-scale sports events, the Sports and Olympic Committee and Bank of China Macao Branch jointly established“Bank of China Scholarship Awards for Macao Elite Athletes”since 2014. This year marks the fifth year of the scholarship, which awarded the Macao athletes who had achieved excellent results equivalent to Top 3 in any of the large-scale multi-sport events and international sports events from 1 May 2017 to 30 April 2018. 

The award ceremony was attended by Edmund Ho Hau Wah, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Honorary President of the Olympic Games, Dr. Alexis Tam Chon Weng, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Li Guang, President of the Bank of China Macau Branch, Ma Iao Hang, President of the Sports and Olympic Committee of Macau, China, Lo Keng Chio, Director of the Sports and Olympic Committee of Macau, China, and Pun Weng Kun, President of the Sports Bureau.