Transcript of remarks by SHYA at media session
**********************************************
Reporter: (On cases of falling concrete) What more can be done by the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau on current mechanism? The second question is about the upcoming Policy Address. Any new development on the youth development part and any review from you guys about the Care Teams and the previous initiatives in the past year?
Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs: The Secretary for Development is very concerned about the various cases. The Development Bureau has already convened the meeting, inviting the Buildings Department, the Urban Renewal Authority (URA), and also the Home Affairs Department to discuss about the mechanism to help those owners maintain their own properties. As for the Home Affairs Department, we have all along been helping those owners convene owners’ meetings and give them advice on how to seek professional services on maintaining their own buildings. So we will make well use of this mechanism to work with the Buildings Department and the URA. For the Home Affairs Department, we will continue to reach out to the owners in need and to provide them with suitable advice and to help them seek suitable and relevant professional services.
As for the upcoming Policy Address, we are working full steam ahead on the various new initiatives on various aspects, including youth services and district governance. We have also looked into how we can better reach out to our young people and community.
For Care Teams, this is a very important task for the Home Affairs Department. We expect that the 16 district Care Teams will be formed in the coming two months. We hope that through the services of the Care Teams, we can better reach out to the community and provide services to our people in various districts. For the Care Teams set up in Tsuen Wan District and Southern District, those Care Team members have already provided various services to people living in the two districts. Just like during the typhoon period, the Care Team members stood by at the shelters to help those people in need. They have also helped the elderly apply for suitable services and they will pay regular visits to the elderly in the districts. We hope that through the services of the Care Teams, we can better reach out to the community, and understand the needs of those in need and provide them with suitable services. And through this process, we also work with other government departments, just like the Social Welfare Department. They have indicated their wish to work with the Care Teams so that we can pay regular visits to the elderly in the community. And we will be more than willing to help our fellow departments liaise and reach out to our community.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, July 22, 2023
Issued at HKT 13:13
Issued at HKT 13:13
NNNN