​     Following is the speech by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at the launch ceremony of the SHKP Vertical Run for Charity – Race to Hong Kong ICC today (December 3):

​     I would like to say a few words in English, very briefly. I just want to pay tribute to Sun Hung Kai Properties for organising this very meaningful “Vertical Run for Charity”. Combining charity with sports and promoting good health is very important direction for everybody in Hong Kong and the whole community. ICC stands for not International Commerce Centre alone, it also stands for inclusiveness, compassion and care, or another way, integrated community care. That is how you look at it, horizontally or vertically. We need to mobilise the whole community, not just the business community, but also NGOs (non-government organisations) and the government, of course we have got a part to play, to build a caring community in Hong Kong. For every 100 dollars we spend, as I have told many times, twenty one dollars and fifty cents goes to education, nineteen dollars goes to social welfare, and seventeen dollars goes to medical and health. So the three add together amounts to 58% of the total government recurrent expenditure. This underlines our commitment to promoting the well-being for Hong Kong community. But government efforts alone is not enough, we need total support from business sector, and also NGOs and the wider community. So today’s event has dual purposes – run for health, race with sportsmanship and at the same time doing charity for a very worthy cause. On that note, thank you very much indeed and thank you again Sun Hung Kai. Keep up the efforts to build a caring Hong Kong together with the government and the NGOs, thank you.  

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Sunday, December 3, 2017
Issued at HKT 12:39

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