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Following is the speech delivered by the Acting Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Stephen Lam, at the Asia Pacific Women Forum 2009 on "Women's Role in the Changing World", held at the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel & Towers this morning (August 29):
Madam Chen (Zhili), Madam Guo (Li), Mr (Khalid) Malik, Peggy (Lam), Pansy (Ho), Elsie (Leung), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
It is indeed a tremendous pleasure for me to join you today and to address such a distinguished audience. Particularly on behalf of the Hong Kong Government, I would like to welcome all of you to todayˇ¦s event, and a special and warm welcome to all our guests from overseas.
Many of you have attended yesterday's events celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Women have played a very key role to nation building in the last six decades. Women are also at the very heart of the development of Hong Kong as an international city, and I am particularly pleased to see the familiar faces of so many friends and colleagues here today.
Lawyers, business persons, environmentalists, educationalists and community leaders are all contributing to today's event.
The forum is also about those who are not here. This forum is about the girls who are going to schools, universities in Hong Kong and elsewhere, young ladies who have dreams for the future, and it is part of our mission to ensure that those dreams will come true. One fine day for those who aspired to serve the community whether they are of either sex and in particular, as Pansy says, "in communities where the female sex is still at a disadvantage. But I am sure that by working together we can all make the high hopes for our children come true, and collectively we can achieve much more for the world, so that we can ensure that everybody will have a fair chance of self actualisation.
I will leave it to the panelists and experts today to deal with the special topics of education, environment, politics and other aspects. But I would like to share with you briefly what this government is doing in Hong Kong to promote womenˇ¦s rights and important roles which we see all of them play day-in-day-out in Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong, we have the Equal Opportunities Commission which was established in 1996 and is actively promoting the eradication of all forms of discrimination on gender, marital status, pregnancy, race discrimination and etc.
Also in 1996, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was extended for application to Hong Kong. We have been working very closely with the community in many areas to make this convention a reality. In areas such as education and training, economic participation, health, combating domestic violence, participation in power-sharing and decision-making, the protection of rights in accordance with CEDAW is a firm commitment of the Hong Kong Government. Our aim is to create an enabling environment for women to fully develop their potentials in all aspects of life in Hong Kong.
In 2001, in order to demonstrate the further advancement of the well-being and interests of women in Hong Kong, we established the Women's Commission to promote women's interests and well-being. Some of you may have attended the Commission's conference earlier this week. Since its establishment, the Women's Commission has provided very sound advice to the Government on the advancement of women in Hong Kong society.
I must also give a special word of thanks to the Hong Kong Federation of Women for organising this forum and for its work over many years in raising the profile of women in Hong Kong. The Federation runs a series of Employees Retraining Programmes to assist women in the workforce. It is particularly important that in the face of the international financial tsunami, these efforts are continuing.
I would like to mention that while the financial tsunami is having an impact around the world, we, in Hong Kong, are particularly well placed to deal with this.
First of all, the participation rate of women in Hong Kong's economy is particularly high. Among the 3.5 million people in our workforce, 1.6 million are of the female sex. This amounts to a participation rate of over 53 percent of our female population in Hong Kong workforce. This is comparable to the rates in many developed economies around the world. This is clear evidence that the female sex in the Hong Kong contributes actively and productively to Hong Kong.
Secondly, as Asia's World City we pride ourselves on being and having attained pristine management standards. Our business schools are world-renowned. The EMBA programme in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ranks second in the world. We have been able to secure this very special position for Hong Kong, I believe, because we have a very capable management leadership among the female sex in Hong Kong. Your counterparts here are chief executive officers, senior professionals and heads of many departments of our Government. Among our Heads of Departments, 34 percent are of the female sex. Many of our Deputy Secretaries and Deputy Heads of Departments are in very influential positions now. As time marches on, this proportion will increase. And I hasten to add that day-in, day-out working with my female colleagues, we enjoy that working relationship and they are extremely capable and determined people.
The third factor which I would like to mention is that, aside from women being members of the Hong Kong workforce, there are many who are home-makers. While going to university and reading economics 101, our economics professor reminded us that even though home-makersˇ¦ contribution is not counted as part of the GDP, it is a most important contribution to our community and to our economy. This Government espouses family values. A few years ago, we have established a Family Commission and one of our most important agenda is to ensure that the home-makers have the environments to fully play out the role of motherhood and to provide conditions in which families can be raised in a wholesome fashion in Hong Kong.
This forum is particularly meaningful because it features successful role models from Hong Kong, the Mainland and overseas. It focuses on key topics which are close to the hearts of all of us.
I urge everybody to make full use of today's opportunity to share your experiences and innovative solutions. This will help further enable women in the Asia Pacific Region to play their full role in their respective communities.
There is a Chinese proverb which says, and which is worth repeating today: women hold up half of the sky. Back at my home, I consider myself very fortunate because my wife and my two daughters hold up more than half of the sky.
Ladies and gentlemen, with your input, I am sure today's forum will be particularly successful and will lay a foundation which will last well into the future. Let us remember that we are all here to ensure that women around the world and in the Asia Pacific Region can aim sky high.
Thank you very much.
Ends/Saturday, August 29, 2009
Issued at HKT 13:35
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