HK Chief Executive delivers maiden policy address, focusing on housing (3)

BUILDING CARING SOCIETY

Leung said while Hong Kong is a generally affluent society, there are still many people who live a hand-to-mouth existence. " We must recognize poverty as a real problem, understand the problem's nature, and formulate specific and feasible policy measures to alleviate it," he noted.

Regarding helping the poor, Leung said governmental task forces concerned will work on different fronts, including supporting the underprivileged who have special needs, promoting education, employment and training, and engaging the community and fostering cross-sectional collaboration among the government, businesses and other sectors.

Leung said the government Commission on Poverty has identified setting a poverty line in light of the actual situation in Hong Kong as one of its priorities. "By setting a poverty line, the current-term Government shows its will and commitment to alleviating the poverty problem," he said.

As for social security and retirement protection, Leung said these are "two recurrent themes that often appear prominently in our discussion of the poverty issue." Taking that into consideration, he emphasized the government will reinforce and enhance the existing three pillars, namely, private savings and family support, the social security system, and the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) System.

To cope with the city's aging challenge, Leung said the government is committed to strengthen community care services, provide a convenient living environment for the elderly, and offer elderly people more diversified choices through a wide range of new and flexible modes of subvention and service delivery.

Moreover, Leung mentioned the government is to adopt a multi- pronged approach to meet the current and future needs of welfare services, as well as to strengthen support for workers at the grassroots level, including providing the relief for their work- related traveling expenses.

"The Government has invested heavily in education and training. But my conviction is that only through employment can those groups with special needs, including persons with disabilities and ethnic minorities, be truly integrated into the community," said Leung.

He urged all employers to give these people more employment opportunities and the government will work with the private sector and NGOs to add jobs.