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The Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang, chaired the 11th meeting of the Commission on Poverty this afternoon (November 20).
The commission discussed the key observations from the Child Development Forum held on November 10, including the applicability of overseas models to promote child development in Hong Kong. At the meeting:
* Members reiterated the importance of the Administration strengthening its efforts to prevent intergenerational poverty. They agreed there was merit in exploring the asset-building models and to see if they could help promote child development in Hong Kong. The CoP would gauge the community's views on three possible models, i) a Child Personal Development Fund; ii) a Child Targeted Savings Fund; and iii) a Child Trust Fund.
* In the short-term, the Government would consider investing additional resources to encourage pilot programmes that encourage personal development and asset-building among children from a disadvantaged background.
"The Government is committed to preventing intergenerational poverty. We keep an open mind on any new proposal that helps to promote future development of our children, especially those from a disadvantaged background," Mr Tang said.
Dr Choi Yuen Wan, Chairman of the Task Force on Children and Youth under the commission said, "Efforts to tackle intergenerational poverty would only be effective if they could increase the capacity of the children. Using the right approach is very important. I encourage more NGOs and the business sector to collaborate in launching demonstration projects using the asset-building approach."
Members were also updated by Mrs Carrie Lam, Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs on the progress of the "Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme" initiated by the commission. Although the programme had only been operating for a few months, members were glad to see that it had encouraged social enterprise development and creation of some 200 district employment opportunities. Members also discussed how to strengthen support for new social enterprises.
In addition, the commission was briefed on the findings of the two major studies on poverty in Hong Kong:
* Study on the Effect of Taxation and Social Benefits on Household Income Distribution - Members noted that Government's transfers and benefits help to alleviate poverty. The post-transfer income increased for all groups except the top 10%. The low-income groups generally received more social benefits than they paid in direct taxes.
* Study on Earnings Mobility - Members noted that there was earning mobility across generations as 87% of children with parents in the lowest 20% earnings group had actually moved up to higher earnings groups in their adult life.
Members also noted a series of initiatives to strengthen assistance to ethnic minorities in training and education.
The agenda and papers of the meeting are available at the commission's website: www.cop.gov.hk.
Ends/Monday, November 20, 2006
Issued at HKT 17:40
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