The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Stephen Lam, who also chairs the Steering Committee on the Community Care Fund (CCF), met the Chairmen of the CCF Sub-committees this afternoon (October 6) and visited the CCF Secretariat to inspect the fund's operation.

     The meeting in Central Government Offices was attended by Mr Lam; the Chairman of the Executive Committee, Dr Law Chi-kwong; the Chairman of the Welfare Sub-committee, Professor Nelson Chow; the Chairman of the Medical Sub-committee, Mr Anthony Wu; the Chairman of the Education Sub-committee, Professor Chan Yuk-shee; and the Chairman of the Home Affairs Sub-committee, Mr Bunny Chan.  They discussed the work progress of the various committees, implementation of the assistance programmes already launched, future work plan of CCF, and possible programmes to be rolled out in the near future.

     Mr Lam thanked the chairmen and other CCF members for their tireless efforts in helping the disadvantaged.  

     "The chairmanship of the CCF Steering Committee carries with it great responsibilities.  I look forward to working closely with the CCF members in helping the underprivileged," said Mr Lam.

     Earlier today, Mr Lam was joined by the Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Raymond Young, in a visit to the CCF Secretariat to better understand the implementation of the programme to provide an allowance of $6,000 for new arrivals.

     Application for the allowance starts on October 3.  The programme seeks to provide a one-off allowance to new arrivals aged 18 or above from low-income families to facilitate their integration and adaptation into the community, and to assist them to better prepare themselves for permanent settlement in Hong Kong.  As at noon today CCF has received close to 5,000 applications.  It is expected that disbursement of allowance will begin from November.

Ends/Thursday, October 6, 2011
Issued at HKT 19:57

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