********************************************************
The Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, said today (October 13) in his annual Policy Address that Hong Kong should share the fruits of the city's prosperity by taking full advantage of its relatively strong recovery from the global financial crisis.
"Past experience has shown that Hong Kong's poor can have their living conditions improved once the economy embarks on a solid recovery," Mr Tsang said.
Mr Tsang unveiled a raft of initiatives aimed at assisting low-income families and the elderly, building a caring society and alleviating poverty.
He announced the setting up of a Community Care Fund, to which the Government and the business sector would each contribute $5 billion to provide people in need with more diversified support in areas not covered by the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme.
"I will raise funds from the business sector. The initial response has been positive," he said.
The Chief Executive announced initiatives to help low-income families and to combat inter-generational poverty.
"Education is fundamental to alleviating inter-generational poverty," Mr Tsang said.
Initiatives include a proposal to increase the full flat-rate grant under the School Textbook Assistance Scheme from $408 to $1,000 per year for full-grant students, and from $204 to $500 per year for half-grant students starting from the next school year. This is expected to cost the Government an extra $120 million annually.
To relieve the burden of travel expenses on low-income employees, a Work Incentive Transport Subsidy Scheme would be launched to provide a monthly travel allowance of $600 for all eligible employees. This will replace the existing Transport Support Scheme.
Highlighting Hong Kong's ageing population, the Chief Executive said the number of people aged 65 or above was expected to surge from about 900,000 at present to 2.1 million by 2030.
"As the relationship between Hong Kong and Guangdong Province grows closer, some of our senior citizens want to retire in Guangdong," Mr Tsang said.
"In the long term, we need to study from the perspective of regional integration ways to assist elderly people who wish to retire in the Mainland."
The Chief Executive also announced a relaxation of limit of absence rules for the Old Age Allowance (OAA) and the Disability Allowance.
"After careful consideration, we propose to substantially relax the limit of absence from Hong Kong for the OAA from the present 240 days to 305 days a year, thus enabling elderly recipients to receive a full-year allowance as long as they have resided in Hong Kong for 60 days a year," Mr Tsang said.
"The new arrangement will also apply to the Disability Allowance."
To help cope with an ageing population, the Chief Executive said more Government resources would be devoted to increasing community care places for the elderly next year.
He said a new pilot scheme on home care services was expected to be launched next year to provide appropriate support for people on the waiting list for nursing home places.
Mr Tsang said the Government had earmarked $1 billion to either expand or enhance the Elderly Healthcare Voucher Pilot Scheme launched last year.
He also announced measures to ensure the early identification, assessment and treatment of autistic children.
The Social Welfare Department will increase places for pre-school intervention service and training for autistic children," he said.
To assist new arrivals adjust to the Hong Kong lifestyle and environment, the Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs will lead a team in monitoring the service demands of new arrivals and the difficulties encountered by ethnic minorities in daily life.
The Chief Executive said he had directed the Steering Committee on Population Policy to focus on two main areas:
* Ways to facilitate and support elderly Hong Kong people to settle in the Mainland after retirement if they so wish.
* The ramifications of children returning to Hong Kong to study and live if they were born in Hong Kong to Mainland women and both parents are Mainland residents.
Ends/Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Issued at HKT 13:13
NNNN
