Press Releases
Develop tripartite partnership to enhance social capital
"It is timely for us to reflect and revisit our welfare philosophies and policy directions because new solutions are needed for our changing social, economic and demographic realities. The community as a whole should benefit from focused discussions," the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, said at the Conference on Social Investment and Future Partnerships today (April 3).
The conference was organised by the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau to provide a forum to initiate discussion on revisiting welfare philosophies, refocusing on an active "social investment" approach instead of passive provision of welfare services in equipping individuals and communities to help themselves and build their resilience to deal with stresses related to adversities and change. The purpose is to enhance "social capital".
The Chief Executive in his 2004 Policy Address tasked the bureau with engaging relevant parties in developing strategies to enhance "social capital" and to examine ways to develop the tripartite partnership between the Government, the business community and the third sector to inculcate the concept of "social capital" in the community and help it take root.
"Hong Kong is going through a period of restructuring in which the pace of change has escalated and the movements in business and people have increased. People in Hong Kong face new opportunities and renewed challenges.
"It is timely for us to reflect on our strategic directions to assess whether our conventional responses are robust enough to meet the challenges.
"No one party, either the individual, family, community or the Government can take sole responsibility or be effective in addressing every and all personal or social problems. Social problems need a society's responses and the solutions reside in the society," Dr Yeoh said.
"One-way welfare provision should be refocused to build individual and community capacities for mutual help with social inclusion and active economic participation as the expected results," he stressed.
Dr Yeoh also called for tripartite partnerships in building a "caring and healthy society" that celebrated family solidarity and a network of mutual care, trust, support and reciprocity that embraced all individuals, nurtured their healthy development, and enabled them to participate in economic and social life with dignity and self-reliance.
He added that mobilising the efforts of all three sectors would tremendously enhance the community's capacity to cope with change and challenges.
Today's conference was attended by over 400 participants mainly from the social welfare sector, including social policy makers and advisers, welfare agency board chairs and executives, relevant academia, representatives of the welfare sector, district councils and business organisations.
Key speakers included Dr Joe Leung of the University of Hong Kong, Dr Joseph Kwok of City University of Hong Kong, and the Director of Social Welfare, Mr Paul Tang. A number of panel speakers shared their views on future directions for fostering partnerships and applying the social investment concept locally. Some of the successful projects also shared their experience on how they partnered with the Community Investment and Inclusion Fund in developing tripartite partnerships.
Ends/Saturday, April 3, 2004
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