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    Following is the speech by the Postmaster General, Mr Allan Chiang, at "Children Stamps - Andersen's Fairy Tales" Issuing Ceremony cum "2006 Children Stamps Design Competition - Dress Bear Up" Award Presentation today (March 22):

Mr Kragholm, the six young stamp designers, distinguished guests and friends from the media,

    Welcome to the "Children Stamps - Andersen's Fairy Tales" Issuing Ceremony cum "2006 Children Stamps Design Competition - Dress Bear Up" Award Presentation.

    I am delighted to see so many children present here. As Easter and the Children's Festival are right around the corner, a new set of Children's Stamps with the theme of Andersen's Fairy Tales is issued today to celebrate and to serve as a tribute to his contribution to children's literature. Hans Christian Andersen is the national pride of Denmark and we are honoured to have the Consul-General of the Royal Danish Consulate General, Mr Kragholm, to officiate at this ceremony for us.

    Stamps and Andersen's fairy tales are equally influential in a way that they travel far and wide. Stamps touch every corner of the world while Andersen's fairy tales take root in children's hearts from generation to generation all over the world. Also, both are educational and inspirational. For stamps, fungi and trams alike are difficult topics being made easy in a combination of graphic and textual presentations. For fairy tales, The Emperor's New Clothes emphasises the importance of open communication while The Little Match Girl promotes concern for the needy. Our issue today in fact is a "crossover" of stamps and fairy tales, a very new attempt that blends two different kinds of artistic formats together.

    Printed in monochrome, each of these four stamps applies one single colour for one story with every character and its setting illustrated with Chinese paper cutting for visual effects.

    Creativity and novelty are crucial to both our postal business and stamp products. Take the well-received Alphabet Stamps we issued early this year. It is a groundbreaking work in terms of idea and design and we are innovative enough to give it the green light. As creativity takes time to nurture, we therefore organise the "2006 Children Stamps Design Competition - Dress Bear Up" to encourage the younger generation to unleash their creativity. A total of nearly 40,000 entries from about 800 schools were received and it is expected that more and more children will take part in stamp design and share the fun of philately.

    Thank you.

Ends/Tuesday, March 22, 2005

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