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The Director of Social Welfare, Ms Carol Yip, commended corporate volunteers for their contributions that had progressed with the times, and their partnerships with local groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to promote innovative voluntary work in various sectors of the society, which had achieved remarkable success in injecting new momentum to society and meeting community needs.
Ms Yip made the remarks at the 2015 Seminar on Corporate Volunteering cum Award Presentation Ceremony today (October 15).
Speaking at the commendation ceremony, Ms Yip said, "Corporate volunteering has played an important role in corporate development strategy. Through the implementation of volunteer projects with diversity and continuity, the corporate sector encourages their employees to participate as volunteers and formulates administrative measures to facilitate their participation. Nowadays, corporate social responsibility has become a key notion of many enterprises and corporate volunteers have provided valuable social capital for our society, which in turn also enriched both their working and daily lives."
She appealed to all participating representatives of corporations and NGOs to adopt the theme of the Volunteer Movement and come up with more volunteer activities that are closely related to daily life. By doing so, volunteers will be able to instill their caring spirit into their work as well as daily life. Ms Yip said she hoped that through joint participation in voluntary work, both volunteers and service recipients would benefit in their personal development through the process of give and take.
The Steering Committee on Promotion of Volunteer Service began promoting the Volunteer Movement in 1998. A Sub-Committee on Promotion of Corporate Volunteering was also set up to encourage corporations to participate in volunteer work and provide support and assistance for the needy, thus helping to build a caring society.
By the end of last month, more than 2 750 agencies have registered as Volunteer Movement Participating Organisations with the number of registered volunteers exceeding 1.25 million. Their total service hours for those in need exceeded 22.4 million in 2014.
At the seminar today, Managing Director of the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Mr Andrew Kam, delivered a keynote speech on "Corporate volunteering: A Business and Community Partnership". Three other speakers, namely Volunteer Team Leader of Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., Miss Michelle Leung; Hong Kong Jockey Club Head of Community Relations, Mr Eddie Poon; and Managing Director of iGen6 New Media Group, Mr Rex Ma, were also invited to speak on the topic, "Trendsetting - Social Innovation in Corporate Volunteering" and share their valuable experience in promoting corporate volunteering.
At the event, awards were presented to 37 corporations and NGOs for 10 000 hours or more of volunteer service in 2014. A graduation ceremony for the 10th corporate volunteer training course was also held. There were also booths that showcased a variety of volunteer services, providing an opportunity for participants to exchange experiences and establish networks for service matching.
Ends/Thursday, October 15, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:01
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