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The Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang, chaired the first meeting of the newly established Commission on Poverty ("the Commission") this afternoon (February 18).  

"This is a useful and constructive meeting. Members of the Commission come from a diverse background but we all share the common goals of identifying the needs of the poor and alleviating poverty through encouraging and supporting self-reliance and community engagement", said Mr Tang.

Members were given an overview on existing government policies and measures in alleviating poverty, in particular in the areas of social security; health and other support services to the needy; education and other support services to students; training and retraining; employment services as well as the Government's role in district administration and community building.

Members shared their expectations on the work of the Commission and expressed their views on policy areas where services needed to be enhanced or required better co-ordination.

There were lively debates on the issue of how to measure poverty and identify people who required additional support and services. "It is not practicable to use a single indicator to define and measure people's needs for a wide variety of services and support measures," Mr Tang said. "With members' agreement, the Government will conduct a study to devise a series of social indicators to reflect and monitor the poverty situation in Hong Kong."

Also, members agreed to adopt a community-based approach in studying and identifying needs of the poor and will carry out district visits to better understand the special needs and challenges of different communities in Hong Kong.  As a first step, members of the Commission will visit Tin Shui Wai in March.  The Commission has also identified prevention of inter-generational poverty as a priority item for discussion at the next meeting.

To promote transparency and provide a better public access to the work of the Commission, a dedicated website of the Commission (www.cop.gov.hk) is launched today.  All non-classified discussion papers and a summary of members' discussions will be uploaded to the website after each meeting.  And starting from the next meeting, the agenda will also be made public before meetings.

The Commission on Poverty is an initiative announced in the Chief Executive's 2005 Policy Address.  The aim is to provide a forum for different sectors of the community to work together to study and explore practical ways to help the poor in terms of their financial, employment, education and training needs.  Special attention will also be paid to reduce inter-generational poverty.

The Commission is chaired by the Financial Secretary and comprises 18 non-official members and five official members, including Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Stephen Ip; Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur Li; Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow; Secretary for Home Affairs, Dr Patrick Ho; and Head of Central Policy Unit, Professor Lau Siu-kai.

Ends/Friday, February 18, 2005

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