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The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:
The Legislative Council will hold a meeting this Wednesday (November 25) at 11am in the Chamber of the Legislative Council Building. During the meeting, Members will debate a motion on enhancing employment support and creating employment opportunities.
The motion, to be moved by Mr Wong Kwok-kin, states: "That, since the reunification, Hong Kong's growth in Gross Domestic Product has exceeded 40% but the population of the poor has increased persistently to over one million, and according to a report published by the United Nations Development Programme, Hong Kong even ranks first in the world in terms of disparity between the rich and the poor, the problem is attributed to the mismatch between manpower supply and job positions, the Government should allocate more resources to expand various employment services as well as continuing education and training, and create jobs to assist the grassroots in securing employment, thereby alleviating the disparity between the rich and the poor; in this connection, this Council urges the Government to adopt the following measures:
(a) while developing the six industries, to provide various concessionary measures particularly targeting at labour-intensive industries, such as the recycling industry, in order to encourage and support the development of these industries;
(b) to provide avenues to continuing education to enable young people, new arrivals, etc to equip themselves for taking up professional positions in the six industries at the middle ranking or supporting levels;
(c) to introduce a territory-wide transport subsidy scheme to subsidize the costs of low-income employees in working across districts, so as to enable them to have more choices in jobs;
(d) to provide re-employment support allowance and employment counseling, etc for the unemployed;
(e) to establish a start-up fund to provide the unemployed with capital to set up their own businesses, and invite professionals to provide support on setting up and operating businesses;
(f) to promote local community culture economy, issue licences to people engaged in arts and cultural performances and activities, and relax the restrictions on on-street arts and cultural activities; and
(g) to consider allowing regulated hawking activities in specific areas or during specific periods, so as to provide opportunities for running small businesses.
Mr Wong Sing-chi, Mr Tommy Cheung, Mr Leung Yiu-chung, Ms Cyd Ho, Ms Li Fung-ying, Dr Priscilla Leung, Mr Leung Kwok-hung, Mr Lee Cheuk-yan and Ms Audrey Eu will move separate amendments to Mr Wong Kwok-kin's motion.
Members will also debate a motion on support for people with mental illness and people recovering from mental illness. The motion, to be moved by Dr Pan Pey-chyou, states: "That, in view of the increasing number of people receiving psychiatric diagnosis and treatment in Hong Kong, as well as the rising trend of incidents and tragedies involving people with severe mental illness in recent years, which reflect that the services currently provided to people with mental illness and people recovering from mental illness are insufficient and must be improved, this Council urges the Government to:
(a) formulate a comprehensive and long-term policy on mental health, so as to set a clear direction for the prevention, early detection, treatment, rehabilitation, long-term care and public education of mental illness;
(b) allocate more resources to train and recruit psychiatric healthcare and rehabilitation professionals and ancillary personnel, including doctors, social workers, nurses, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists and physiotherapists, etc, to provide comprehensive services to people with mental illness and people recovering from mental illness;
(c) clearly position psychiatric services in the public sector so that resources are effectively utilized to treat people whose mental illness is more severe, provide the grassroots with appropriate treatment and train medical and nursing staff at all levels to serve the community, and resolve the problems in the distribution of resources and facilities among the clusters so as to enhance effectiveness of the services;
(d) suspend the reduction of psychiatric beds and re-introduce evening consultation services in order to provide appropriate services to people recovering from mental illness who have to work in the daytime;
(e) strengthen training on professional knowledge on psychiatry for healthcare personnel in family medicine and enhance the collaboration between family medicine and psychiatric services, so that family doctors can diagnose and treat various types of mental illness at an early stage and make timely referral of people with severe mental illness to psychiatric units for follow-up;
(f) allocate more resources for pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments so that people with mental illness can receive the most suitable treatment for their illness;
(g) further develop the community medical and rehabilitation services to cater for the needs of people with mental illness and people recovering from mental illness, reinforce the collaboration of these two types of services, and consolidate the existing services, with a view to strengthening the support for people recovering from mental illness and their families;
(h) assign case managers on a long term basis to closely follow up cases, so that patients can receive appropriate services and support during various stages of rehabilitation;
(i) establish additional mental health centres in the community to provide integrated services to people with mental illness and people recovering from mental illness;
(j) increase subvented places to accommodate the needy people with mental illness who are discharged from hospitals, and strengthen the regulation of the quality of self-financing hostels;
(k) encourage the private and public sectors to employ people with disabilities, including people recovering from mental illness, and encourage the participation of the private sector by means of tax concession etc; and
(l) pro-actively promote public education and volunteer work on mental health, eliminate discrimination against people with mental illness and people recovering from mental illness in the community, so that people with mental illness will be more active in receiving medical treatment and people recovering from mental illness can reintegrate into the society more smoothly.
Mr Wong Sing-chi, Dr Joseph Lee and Dr Leung Ka-lau will move separate amendments to Dr Pan Pey-chyou's motion.
Meanwhile, Ms Audrey Eu will move a resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance to extend the period for amending the Energy Efficiency (Labelling of Products) Ordinance (Amendment of Schedules) Order 2009, laid on the table of the Legislative Council on November 4, 2009, to the meeting of January 6, 2010.
During the meeting, Members will ask the Government 19 questions on various policy areas, six of which require oral replies. The agenda of the above meeting can be obtained via the Legislative Council InfoFax Service (Tel: 2869 9568) or the Legislative Council web site (http://www.legco.gov.hk).
Members of the public are welcome to observe the proceedings of the meeting from the public galleries of the Legislative Council Chamber. They may reserve seats by calling 2869 9399 during office hours. Seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Members of the public can also listen to the meeting via the audio webcast system on the Legislative Council homepage.
Ends/Monday, November 23, 2009
Issued at HKT 19:18
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