The Hong Kong Legislative Council’s Finance Committee approved a plan to expand Hong Kong Disneyland on Tuesday, by giving the theme park another 5.45 billion HK dollars (0.7 billion US dollars).

The Walt Disney Company from the US and the Hong Kong government jointly announced in November that they were going to invest more than 10.9 billion HK dollars in total on the park's expansion project.

According to the original plan, the government was supposed to pay 53 percent of the fund, which is about 5.7 billion HK dollars, and the Walt Disney Company would pay the remaining 47 percent. But the two sides later agreed that the government would only pay 5.45 billion HK dollars at most, and the funding application was finally approved today, by a vote by 30 to 24.

The expansion will add two new themed areas to the park before 2023, and at least one more new attraction to the park every year.

According to Su Jinliang, the director of Hong Kong's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, the expansion project will create 3,500 jobs during construction and 5,000 to 8,000 afterwards.

Hong Kong Disneyland Park opened on Lantau Island in September 2015. It is the fifth Disneyland Park worldwide, as well as Asia's second and China's first.