Care and Courage underline Policy Address initiatives

The Chief Executive last week unveiled his Policy Address entitled "From Strength to Strength", signalling his confidence in Hong Kong people to embrace any challenges ahead upon the sound foundations we have laid over the years.

This is vividly illustrated in sectors under the ambit of my (Labour and Welfare) Bureau. While Hong Kong’s success is often measured by its economic achievements, our progress will be defined by the quality of life we can all enjoy, not least the elderly, the disadvantaged and those who are less well off.

I believe that the wide range of new social welfare policy initiatives, many of which are ground-breaking and bold, underpin our long-term policy blueprint and vision for future progress. These initiatives will be carried through with care and determination to do our best to improve our people’s well-being and livelihood.

The emphasis on enhancing support for the elderly and the disadvantaged is obvious. The $2 Public Transport Concession Scheme for those aged 65 or above and eligible persons with disabilities, the Guangdong Scheme and the Community Care Service Voucher Pilot announced in the Policy Address are cases in point. ..

Less high-profile but equally significant are a raft of initiative enhancements to better support the young, the elderly, individuals and families. These include expanding and improving elderly and rehabilitation services, food bank services and support for families, women and children. Also, $100 million will be injected into the “Enhancing Employment of People with Disabilities through Small Enterprise” Project to further promote employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.

These are just a few of the measures announced in the Policy Address, all of which are strategically driven, pragmatic and forward-looking.

Coping with a rapidly ageing population will be our city’s major challenge in the next 20 years. We must be well prepared for this. The Government’s multi-pronged strategy covers six focus areas:

Continue to improve the quantity and quality of elderly services
Tap the potential of the private sector and raise the quality of its services
Introduce “money-follows-user” model to encourage the provision of diversified elderly services by different types of providers
Promote “ageing in place” (i.e. at home and in the community)
Make the best of Hong Kong/Guangdong regional integration
Encourage active and healthy ageing in the community

The Government’s policy of promoting “ageing in place as the core, institutional care as back-up” meets the aspirations of most elderly people. However, the services to support ageing in place are currently inadequate and the market is far from mature. The elderly have limited choices and their carers are under considerable pressure.

That is why we have decided to break away from traditional funding and service delivery modes by adopting the Elderly Commission’s recommendation to introduce a Community Care Service Voucher Pilot Scheme. The Scheme will provide subsidies directly to eligible elderly people for them to choose the services they need. This way, users will find the services more practical; more operators will be attracted to join the market and we will be creating the right conditions for the elderly to continue to enjoy life in the community. In the long run, this will also help promote sustainable market development.

Through the Policy Address we have taken a strategic step towards our vision for a caring community. As the voucher scheme is a new concept, members of the public will no doubt be concerned about service supply and demand as well as quality, manpower, fees and so on. We will address these issues before launching the scheme.

Mobility is important to us all. Whether we are visiting friends and family, going shopping or taking in a movie, we all like to get out and about. The proposed new public transport fare concessions will enable more than 900,000 elderly aged 65 or above and around 130,000 eligible people with disabilities to travel on general MTR lines and franchised bus and ferry routes for $2 a trip any time. This will encourage and enable them to participate more in community activities and, in turn, help to build an inclusive and caring society. The Government will join hands with the public transport operators to implement the scheme. We will also request the operators to continue absorbing the costs of existing concessions that they voluntarily offer to the elderly and persons with disabilities.

The Guangdong Scheme is a new initiative which builds on existing policy premises. The Scheme allows elderly Hong Kong people who choose to reside in Guangdong to receive full-year payment there without having to return to Hong Kong during the payment period. This will make life easier for those involved. The Guangdong Scheme balances various legal, financial and technical considerations, and demonstrates both reason and thoughtfulness. It is a pragmatic move that meets public expectations and is in line with the growing trend of Hong Kong-Guangdong integration.

Naturally, with such large and complex topics, many questions have been raised about our elderly and social welfare strategies. People want to know whether these recommendations can be implemented immediately, whether they are affordable in the long run and whether they are consistent with current policy.

These initiatives are long-term policy objectives to tackle long-term foreseeable challenges. We must work out detailed implementation plans to ensure the decisions that we make are sustainable. Nevertheless, we will strive to roll out the new schemes and measures as soon as possible.

The Government is often accused of not doing enough to ease the problems of low-income families. I agree that there is room for us to do more to alleviate poverty. But let us not forget that we have recently ironed out a number of hurdles in this regard. Despite all odds, we successfully implemented the statutory minimum wage on May 1 this year. It is heartening to note that low-paid workers enjoyed notable pay hikes with a year-on-year increase of 14.4% for the period June to August. That is much higher than the overall average pay rise of 7.2% and represents a 6% growth in real terms. What is more, female employment rose by a solid 5.9 percent (or 97,000), compared with 2.3 percent (41,800) for men. This is a clear “thumbs up” for the statutory minimum wage. It also supports our belief that sustainable economic growth is the key to raising overall living standards in our community. I should also mention that the Work Incentive Transport Subsidy Scheme came into operation this month, further easing the transport cost burden of low-income earners.

The Chief Executive’s final Policy Address testifies to the Government’s care for the disadvantaged, commitment to promote the well-being of the community, and courage to think out of the box and take forward bold and visionary measures. This will lay the sound foundation for our city to cope with future welfare challenges as well as a pathway for Hong Kong to forge ahead from strength to strength.

Ends

Ends/Friday, October 21, 2011