Attention duty announcers, radio and TV stations: Please broadcast the following message as soon as possible and repeat it at suitable intervals:  … read more
A man who went missing in Chai Wan was located. Lau Yiu-wah, aged 70, went missing after he left an elderly home on Chai Wan Road on November 28 afternoon. A staff member of the elderly hom… read more
Police today (November 30) appealed to the public for information on a man who went missing in Kwai Chung. Chan Yau-cheung, aged 56, went missing after he left a hostel on Wo Yi Hop Road ye… read more
The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, today (November 30) held the stakeholders engagement session of the Commission on Children and announced the launch of the territory-wide “Caring for Our Kids” Campaign.
Speaking at the opening session, Mr Cheung said that children would be the future and hope for Hong Kong. The current-term Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government attaches great importance to the healthy physical and mental growth of children and has set up a Commission on Children with cross-bureau and departmental representation. The Commission engages child concern groups to address in a focused manner issues that children face while growing up. He thanked representatives from different sectors and professions for participating in the stakeholders engagement session and sharing valuable experience and knowledge on child welfare over the years, with a view to integrating child development issues into the policy agenda. He called on all quarters of society to team up to safeguard the rights and well-being of children for building a pro-child and inclusive society.
Some 50 representatives from social welfare non-governmental organisations, the education and medical sectors as well as children’s rights groups attended the engagement session. They shared their views and experiences in four parallel breakout sessions covering the safety and basic needs of children, protection for children, listening to children’s voices as well as the growth and development of children. They are in line with the four major rights set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, namely the right to survival, protection, participation and development.
The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Dr Law Chi-kwong, and members of the Commission also attended to garner stakeholders’ views on an extensive range of issues related to children’s interests and well-being. The cross-discipline discussions today are key to reinforcing the role of the Commission and developing children-related policies and measures in further promoting children’s rights. The Commission will consolidate views collected today to map out future work plans.
The engagement session also marked the launch of a series of educational and publicity activities under the “Caring for Our Kids” Campaign to raise public awareness on children’s rights and well-being through tripartite collaboration among the community, business sector and the Government. A new Announcement in the Public Interest of the Campaign was premiered and a thematic webpage (www.coc.gov.hk/en/cok.html) with details of activities has been rolled out in the Commission’s website.
Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, at a media session after attending a radio programme today (November 30):
Reporter: Secretary, by pulling some of these universities’ funding request, does the Government have any timetable on when these funding requests will be re-tabled to LegCo (Legislative Council)? As after this LegCo term, it will mean a start over of the legislative process. Is the Government really being fair to universities and actually bringing politics into education? Second, after the clashes at the universities, is it really doable and is it really reasonable to limit access to university campus, because universities already have security teams. So is it really necessary to look into limiting access?
Secretary for Education: On the temporary pulling out of these items from the FC (Finance Committee) agenda or the PWSC (Public Works Subcommittee) agenda, for example, for the item on the PWSC agenda, it is about a library extension and is an item led by the EDB (Education Bureau). We need more time to work with the management of PolyU (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) to firm up the timetable and also to reconfirm the design of the whole extension before we go to the PWSC again. And for the other items which are led by the FHB (Food and Health Bureau), I think it is also their intention to resubmit the item when they have a chance to further discuss with some LegCo members to further explain some of their projects to the members. So I think it is still our target to resubmit all these proposals to the LegCo within this legislative session. Regarding the limit of access to the campus, I think it all depends on individual campuses. Some of them are very big and it may not be feasible to have a very strict control over access. But I think, the management, also together with our support, will consider all possibilities. The idea is to maintain the safety of the campus for every one of the university, including students, as well as teaching staff.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.) read more