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Following is the speech by the Postmaster General, Mr Luk Ping-chuen at the Asia & Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993-2002) "A Society for All" Souvenir Cover Issuing Ceremony cum Award Presentation today (October 3):

Professor FANG, Dr WU, Mrs YAU, distinguished guests and friends from the media,

Being a multifarious society, Hong Kong is a place dwelled with different communities, including people with disability. Abled or disabled, every one should be treated on equal terms and given the same opportunities to full participation in social life. With perseverance and hard work, people experiencing health or activity limitations are also capable of proving their worth and have our respect duly commanded.

As one of the executive arm of the government, Hongkong Post is supportive to the administration's disability policy apart from its commitment to quality service. We take in 122 differently-abled employees and outsource jobs to sheltered workshops where people with impairments work together for a living.

To promote the idea of embracing all, the Asia & Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993-2002) "A Society for All" Souvenir Cover design competition was jointly held by the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau, the Sub-committee on Public Education on Rehabilitation of the Rehabilitation Advisory Committee and Hongkong Post.

Mr CHUN Kwok-wai whose design was adopted in today's souvenir cover, is the winner of this competition. His work depicts the togetherness of the abled and disabled. The house-shaped icon on the left side of the cover symbolizes the Asia and Pacific Region while the man-shaped icons in the background stand for people from the rest of the world, giving an impact of harmonious co-existence between the abled and disabled.

To acknowledge the achievement of our well-performed athletes with disability, we have issued some philatelic items in recognition of their great success before. With the issue of this souvenir cover, we hope that we could enlighten and involve both the abled and disabled people about full integration into society for all.

Thank you.

End/Thursday, October 3, 2002

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