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Speech by SLW at Opening Ceremony of Po Leung Kuk Padma and Hari Harilela Integrated Rehabilitation Centre (English only)
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     Following is the speech by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at the Opening Ceremony of the Po Leung Kuk Padma and Hari Harilela Integrated Rehabilitation Centre today (March 25):

Dr Eric Cheng (Chairman of Po Leung Kuk), Dr Aron Harilela (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Harilela Hotels Hong Kong), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

     I am deeply honoured to be invited to officiate at the Opening Ceremony of the Po Leung Kuk Padma and Hari Harilela Integrated Rehabilitation Centre.

     Four years ago, I had the privilege of witnessing the launching of the Po Leung Kuk Kwai Chung Integrated Rehabilitation Centre in this complex. In my opening speech, I described the project as a "flagship rehabilitation centre" in Hong Kong. Since then, the Centre has been providing over 550 places of quality rehabilitation services to needy people with disabilities.

     Thanks to a generous endowment from the Harilela family, the Centre has turned a new page this year and is now equipped with state-of-the-art hardware to better serve its users. As a token of appreciation for the philanthropic spirit of the Harilela family, Po Leung Kuk has renamed the Centre after Dr Hari Harilela and Mrs Padma Harilela.

     The successful story of the Harilela family and their legendary unity are well known in Hong Kong. Behind this success story is a deep seated and long running passion for helping Hong Kong's underprivileged and needy.

     I once came across an article in a local magazine carrying an exclusive interview with Dr Hari Harilela. He recalled that when the disastrous Shek Kip Mei fire broke out in 1953, he immediately decided to donate $5,000 to the victims. That was a big amount back then and he actually had to borrow from the bank in order to make the generous donation. I am particularly impressed by his remarks "when it comes to donating to charity, you are doing it from the heart". This is, of course, only but one episode of Dr Hari Harilela's good deeds. No doubt, he has set a shining example for others to follow.

     It therefore gives me great pleasure to witness the birth of the Po Leung Kuk Padma and Hari Harilela Integrated Rehabilitation Centre and to pay warm tribute to its kind donors.

     Funded by subvention from the Social Welfare Department and contribution by Po Leung Kuk, this Centre testifies to the success of tripartite partnership among a leading non-government organisation, the business community and the Government.

     At the heart of this cross-sectoral collaboration is the important role of Po Leung Kuk, which has been a long-standing and key social partner of the Government in providing a wide spectrum of high-quality welfare and educational services.

     Last April, Po Leung Kuk was commissioned by the Social Welfare Department to serve as the administrator of the new Support Programme for Employees with Disabilities (SPED), which provides employers of persons with disabilities a one-off subsidy of up to $20,000 in respect of each employee with disabilities for procurement of assistive devices or workplace modifications. Our aim is to facilitate employees with disabilities to discharge their work duties more easily and efficiently. By so doing, we are hoping to provide more incentive for employers to hire employees with disabilities. In fact, the SPED Office is based right here in the Harilela Centre.

     The current-term Government aims at building a caring society for all. Elderly care services, poverty alleviation and care for the needy top our policy agenda.

     On the rehabilitation front, we seek to create an environment whereby persons with disabilities can fully develop their capabilities and integrate into the community. Our overall public recurrent expenditure for rehabilitation services alone has increased from $2.8 billion in 2007-08 to $4.3 billion in 2013-14, up by over 53 per cent. In 2014-15, the figure will further rise to $5.1 billion, representing an increase of about 19 per cent over 2013-14. This includes the relevant expenditure of the Labour and Welfare Bureau, the Social Welfare Department (excluding expenditure under the Comprehensive Social Security Allowance Scheme and Social Security Allowance Scheme) and the Transport Department (Rehabus service).

     In face of keen demand for rehabilitation services, the Government will continue to adopt a multi-pronged approach in actively identifying suitable sites and providing more service places. During the current-term Government, we will provide 6 200 additional places of rehabilitation services. These include 2 016 day training and vocational rehabilitation service places, 2 713 residential care service places and 1 471 pre-school rehabilitation places.

     In the medium and long term, through the Special Scheme on Privately Owned Sites for Welfare Uses launched by the Labour and Welfare Bureau last September, we hope to provide more than 8 000 additional rehabilitation service places in the next five to 10 years. Of these, about 2 000 will be residential care service places and about 6 000 day-care service places. On February 21, the Legislative Council approved the injection of a substantial $10 billion into the Lotteries Fund to ensure the smooth implementation of this major social welfare infrastructure programme. We are thus forging ahead in increasing the supply of rehabilitation service places on all fronts to address the ever rising demand.

     Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude by thanking Dr and Mrs Hari Harilela most warmly once again for their generosity. My thanks also go to Po Leung Kuk for its unstinting support and sterling contribution. Let us all join hands in building a truly caring, compassionate and cohesive Hong Kong. Thank you.

Ends/Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Issued at HKT 17:03

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