Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ4: Efforts in alleviating poverty

Following is a question by the Hon Frederick Fung Kin-kee and a reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (May 30):

Question:

At the Legislative Council meeting on May 3 this year, the Chief Executive (CE) said that the most important objectives of the work in alleviating poverty were to increase employment opportunities, reduce unemployment rate and increase the income of people at grass-roots level. He did not rule out the possibility of continuing to take forward the work in alleviating poverty in the form of a committee and reorganising the Commission on Poverty (CoP) if necessary, and he would personally be involved in promoting the development of social enterprises. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council :

(a) given that the Government originally intended to publish the latest information on indicators of poverty in around March or April each year, but the information for both last year and this year was not published at the originally scheduled time, of the reasons for the delay in the publication for this year, how such an arrangement can be improved, the progress of updating the indicators of poverty, the exact date for the publication of the information for this year;

(b) whether it will consider setting objectives in eradicating poverty with time limits, so that the latest indicators of poverty can better help CE achieve his objectives in alleviating poverty; and

(c) given that the term of office of CoP will expire at the end of next month, and promoting the development of social enterprises has all along been its task, whether the Government will consider reorganising CoP, with CE taking over its chairmanship, so as to enhance its powers and functions; if not, whether the Government will consider extending the term of office of CoP, or entrusting the Family Commission, which is being established, with the responsibility of coordinating the work in alleviating poverty in future, in order to ensure the continuation of the work in alleviating poverty?

Reply:

Madam President,

The Government of Hong Kong Special Administration Region attaches great importance to preventing and alleviating poverty. Besides ensuring basic social protection and support, the Government seeks to provide individuals with opportunities to develop and enhance themselves and free themselves from poverty through economic development, employment, education and training.

During the past two years or so, the Commission on Poverty raised various issues and carried out a number of projects. My reply to the various parts of the question raised by Hon Frederick Fung is as follows:

(a) As the Government needs more time to collate the relevant information with different departments in updating the indicators of poverty, in particular those related to district-based statistics, an update of the indicators cannot be published before the end of April. We understand that the community is deeply concerned about the poverty alleviation work and the relevant issues. We shall therefore update the indicators as soon as possible and publish them before the middle of this year.

In order to capture more comprehensively and accurately the detailed information collected from the 2006 Population By-census, it was not until recently that we came up with the results of this year's updating work. Analysis is being conducted by the Government Economist and the Census and Statistics Department. According to the information available, there was almost an across-the-board improvement for the indicators related to employment and earnings in 2006. As for the six district-based indicators, they continued to attain general improvements. This was mainly due to a further decline in the unemployment rate and a rise in wages as underpinned by the sustained and robust economic growth.

We shall discuss the latest performance of the indicators of poverty at the Commission on Poverty (the Commission) meeting to be held this Friday. After listening to the views of Members on the analysis, we shall release the updated poverty indicators and the relevant analysis as soon as practicable. Relevant information will be uploaded to the Commission's website. Comments from the public are welcome.

(b) A single income-based indicator is insufficient for the purpose of defining poverty and assessing the effectiveness of poverty alleviation work, nor can it provide a contextual understanding of the actual situation. Thus, the Commission has developed a set of more comprehensive indicators which provides an overview of how the poverty situation evolves over time and highlights the areas for more focused study for reference during policy formulation. We should formulate measures to address the needs of various social groups taking into account the actual situation and their specific needs, instead of fixing poverty eradication targets with time limits.

(c) The Government is committed to preventing and alleviating poverty and addressing the needs of the disadvantaged. The Chief Executive has reiterated that alleviating poverty through promoting employment will be one of the major tasks of the next Administration. The Government will, therefore, take forward the work on poverty alleviation and the next Administration will also continue to support the work through an appropriate institutional structure.

The Commission has, in the past two years or so, played a positive and active role in poverty alleviation. By conducting studies and consolidating views from various sectors, the Commission has examined all major poverty alleviation policies, identified existing services that have to be improved and further coordinated, and explored new strategies and directions for poverty alleviation. The activities of the Commission include:

(i) compiling a set of indicators of poverty and conducting researches and studies to enhance the understanding of poverty;

(ii) promoting employment and the direction of "From Welfare to Self-reliance" in alleviating poverty, facilitating the development of social enterprises as well as supporting an integrated approach to deliver training and employment assistance to help the unemployed and low-income earners who are difficult to employ;

(iii) enhancing support to children from a disadvantaged background, including the establishment of a Child Development Fund, in order to reduce risks of intergenerational poverty;

(iv) strengthening support to the hidden elderly in need and making recommendations to address the needs of the elderly in poverty; and

(v) implementing the district-based approach with the establishment of poverty alleviation fora at the district level and strengthening support to districts.

The Commission will submit its report to the Government next month (June) to summarise its work and make recommendations on the work in future. By then, the work of the Commission will also draw to a close during the current Administration. The next Administration has drawn reference from the recommendations of the Commission in the proposed re-organisation of the Government which includes (1) further promoting the development of social enterprises by the Home Affairs Bureau through the district-based approach, and fostering of the tri-partite partnerships among the Government, the business sector and the community; (2) establishing a new Labour and Welfare Bureau responsible for coordinating the poverty alleviation work, including the integration of existing employment assistance and training services to encourage the unemployed to work and move "from welfare to self-reliance".

The Administration is studying whether a Family Commission responsible for policies and initiatives relating to the family should be set up, and if so, the implementation arrangements as well as the re-organisation and resources reallocation that need to follow. The study will be completed in June. A final decision will be made by the next Administration.


Ends/Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:52

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