************************************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Commission on Youth:
The Commission on Youth (CoY) held a Youth Exchange Session at Tin Ching Community Hall, Tin Shui Wai, this evening (June 13). The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, attended the session and exchanged views with young people on the topic of retirement protection.
Mr Cheung pointed out that Hong Kong's population is ageing rapidly. The number of elderly persons aged 65 and above would double by 2041, rising from today's 1.15 million (or 16 per cent of Hong Kong's population) to 2.49 million, accounting for about one third of the population. With the workforce peaking in 2018 and starting to shrink thereafter, the dependency ratio would also worsen, he said. He also introduced the multi-pillar model of Hong Kong's retirement protection system. This includes the social security schemes funded entirely by Government revenue, mandatory contributions by employers and employees to the Mandatory Provident Fund schemes which help working people to save for their retirement, voluntary savings and family support, as well as the care provided for the elderly through the heavily subsidised public housing, public health care and welfare services. These pillars are complementary to each other.
He also said that the current-term Government had devoted huge resources to poverty alleviation and elderly care. Among the measures is the Old Age Living Allowance which was launched in 2013 and has benefited 430 000 elderly people, or almost 40 per cent of the elderly population, so far. The current multi-tiered social security system has benefited 830 000, or 73 per cent of elderly people, and is an important pillar of Hong Kong's retirement protection system. He encouraged participants at this evening's exchange session to give comprehensive consideration to all possible improvement measures for strengthening Hong Kong's retirement protection system, with a view to offering better retirement protection for elderly people in need of support.
In his concluding remarks, Mr Cheung said that any retirement protection system must be financially sustainable and affordable to the community, as well as viable in the long run, and therefore has a close bearing on young people. He was pleased that young people had been proactive in taking part in the discussion of retirement protection, and appealed to the public to send in their views before the consultation closed on June 21.
The Chairman of the CoY, Mr Lau Ming-wai, said the CoY would continue to organise exchange sessions to provide young people with opportunities to exchange views with representatives from Government bureaux or advisory bodies or speakers from various sectors of the community on topics of concern.
Ends/Monday, June 13, 2016
Issued at HKT 21:54
NNNN