The Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Caspar Tsui, today (September 16) visited Wong Nai Chung Sports Centre under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and inspected the preparation work for its reopening. The sports cen… read more
Following is the English translation of the video speech by the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, at the forum on Women and Poverty Reduction in the 21st Century in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the fourth World Conference on Women and the fifth anniversary of the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment today (September 16):
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning. I am honoured to speak to you today, by video, in my capacity as the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the World Conference on Women in Beijing and the fifth anniversary of the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. As the first female Chief Executive of the HKSAR, I have the added responsibility to advance the development of women in Hong Kong. And I am pleased to have this opportunity today to speak to you about our progress in this regard.
Since Hong Kong’s return to the motherland 23 years ago, we have benefited from the country’s rapid development. Thanks to “One Country, Two Systems”, together with our other advantages and the hard work of the people of Hong Kong, we have developed into an international financial, business and logistics centre. Today, Hong Kong is an affluent city with a Gross Domestic Product reaching US$49,000 per capita. That said, Hong Kong is an externally oriented capitalist society, and “relative poverty” still exists in our city. The HKSAR Government has a responsibility to help the poor and underprivileged, to promote social equality and enable Hong Kong to become a more inclusive society.
The concept of “relative poverty” is to define households with income level below that of the general public as poor. This is consistent with the poverty alleviation principle, that of helping all sectors of society to share the rewards of economic development. Having established a poverty line based on the concept of relative poverty, the Government has analysed the situation of our various community groups and is providing targeted assistance to them. To help support low-income families with children at school, for example, the Government has run the Working Family Allowance Scheme since 2016 to encourage parents to stay in employment and ease intergenerational poverty.
Hong Kong’s poor population is generally larger, and the poverty rate higher, among women than men. The average income of women is also lower than that of men. This can be attributed to a host of socio-demographic factors, as well as the traditional family responsibilities borne by Chinese women. That said, providing more equal opportunities, more choices and stronger family support for women are effective strategies in improving the situation.
Hong Kong has a sound education system. All children are provided with free education for 15 years, and a high percentage of them can get into university. Since 1996, the percentage of female students in universities has exceeded that of male students, giving Hong Kong a high-quality female labour force. In fact, since 1996, Hong Kong’s labour force has increased by some 1.4 million – 1 million of them women. Our female labour force participation rate, however, is still only 51 per cent, relatively low compared with other cities in the region. Given such challenges as an ageing population and keen competition for talent in the region, Hong Kong must continue to create a conducive environment for women to achieve work-family balance and enable them to fully utilise their talent at different positions in society so as to maintain Hong Kong’s competitiveness.
In recent years, we have implemented a range of family-friendly policies to help working mothers take care of their children. These include enhancing the services provided by child-care centres and home-based child carers, as well as improving the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project to support women with young children to enter or stay in employment. We have extended statutory maternity leave from 10 weeks to 14 weeks, with the additional maternity leave pay borne by the Government. We have also increased statutory paternity leave from three days to five days. Moreover, we have strengthened legislation against discrimination, prohibiting direct and indirect discrimination against breastfeeding mothers.
Apart from government measures, more and more private enterprises in our society have followed suit and introduced various family-friendly measures. They understand that such measures are important in attracting and retaining talent, especially women, and conducive to the long-term development of their businesses. The HKSAR Government will continue to urge companies to create an environment that helps women fully realise their potential in the workplace.
We also encourage their participation in public affairs. Women are taking up critical positions in the Government. The percentage of female civil servants has gone up from 32 per cent before Hong Kong’s return to the motherland to 38 per cent today. Thirteen of our 19 Permanent Secretaries – the highest rank in the civil service – are women. The percentage of female members serving on the several hundred advisory and statutory bodies set up by the Government is now close to 30 per cent. These figures speak of the pivotal role played by women in Hong Kong’s public affairs.
The contribution of women to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in Hong Kong is also inspiring. Apart from myself, who is the leader of our city’s fight against the epidemic, the Government’s Secretary for Food and Health and Director of Health are women. Moreover, countless female healthcare workers, frontline and supporting staff, as well as women in Hong Kong as a whole, are all battling with the virus at different positions. I believe that the same is true for many places around the world. I salute all women for their inspiring efforts in combating the epidemic.
I wish you a rewarding and enjoyable forum. And I look forward to working with you to carry forward the spirit of the World Conference on Women in Beijing held 25 years ago and the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment convened five years ago, and contribute to the causes of advancing women’s development and alleviating world poverty. Thank you.
Presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), the “Performance Matters” Dialogue Series featuring multimedia artists as hosts and guest speakers will be held in October in three sessions. The hosts and speakers will share experiences and views at the lectures, which will include simple exercises, demonstrations and activities, followed by a group discussion.
Details are as follows:
October 2 (Friday) at 3pm
Topic: What is Performance?
Content: What is a performance? Is a performance something close to us, or is it elusive? As a concept, how far can it be expanded? What sort of cerebral reaction can a broader definition provoke in the creators’ and viewers’ minds? At a time when it is increasingly difficult to define the term performance, “What is Performance?” attempts to construct an inspirational debate by raising questions to make sense of the relationship between seeing and being seen.
Moderator: Dick Wong (choreographer, dancer, director and actor, who grew up between cultures)
Speakers: Orlean Lai (independent producer and curator, focuses on curating hybrid collaborations across the arts genre) and Zoe Lai (independent dramaturg, who has worked in the areas of theatre, contemporary dance and architecture, who graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Practice at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom)
October 3 (Saturday) at 3pm
Topic: Acting-Persona-Everyday People
Content: In theatre performances, an actor will begin by digging into the character and asking questions such as, “Who am I? Where am I from? Why am I doing this? What kind of mental state am I in when I say this? What are the causes and effects?” Some performances no longer necessarily require you to “perform”, but to be “yourself”. But what does it really mean to “be yourself”? For the actors, they have to ask themselves, “Am I acting or not?” As for the audience who are invited to perform on stage, the question is: what is “performance”?
Moderator: Dick Wong
Speakers: Faye Leong (actress, director, educator, producer and artistic director, who is a Lecturer of Acting in the School of Drama of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts) and Vee Leong (writer-director in text-based and intermedia art making)
October 4 (Sunday) at 3pm
Topic: We Are in This Together
Content: Media technology has long been employed in the making of theatre to produce dazzling effects that envelop and encompass the audience. Of course, no matter how powerfully infectious a performance is, the audience is still sitting back and watching it passively. With its ever-changing dynamics, contemporary theatre has forged a new path in the use of media technology, which acts as both the objective and the content, and comes in a myriad of forms. Through live interactive participation using mobile applications, virtual reality, augmented reality, headphones and network surveillance, the audience is thrust into the midst of things, experiencing as well as participating in a performance. Theatres/performances would henceforth feature audiences with their own experiences and richer layers of the here and now. Where will media technology take creators and audiences? In the light of the emergence of interactive online performances during the pandemic, how will future performance-making be extended to media online?
Moderator: Zoe Lai
Speakers: Ivor Houlker and Michelle Li (founders and co-artistic directors of Rooftop Productions) and Adrian Yeung (new media designer and theatre director)
Conducted in Cantonese, the lectures will be held at Black Box Theatre, Kwai Tsing Theatre. Tickets priced at $80 for each lecture are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk). For telephone credit card bookings, please call 2111 5999. For programme enquiries and concessionary schemes, please call 2268 7323 or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/multi_arts/programs_1003.html.
Regarding the epidemic situation, the number of audience members will be limited to half of the original capacity of the LCSD’s performance venues. Please note that there are special seating arrangements. read more
The Government will gazette directions and specifications under the Prevention and Control of Disease (Requirements and Directions) (Business and Premises) Regulation (Cap. 599F), the Prevention and Control of Disease (Prohibit… read more
The 14-day Universal Community Testing Programme (UCTP) was successfully concluded yesterday (September 14). UCTP has identified asymptomatic patients and cut the community transmission chain as far and as early as possible and achieved the objective of early identification, early isolation and early treatment. It prevents further transmission of the virus for better control of the third wave of the epidemic.
A spokesman of the Government said, “The third wave of COVID-19 epidemic has slowly subsided from its peak in late July. UCTP had effectively identified asymptomatic patients in the community and cut the community transmission chain. A total of at least 42 patients in the community have been identified through testing under UCTP and tracing of close contacts of these confirmed cases, who were arranged for isolation and treatment. Without UCTP, these patients would have continued to carry out various activities in the community leading to further community outbreak and clusters.”
Since its launch on September 1, a total of about 1 783 000 specimens had been collected under UCTP for COVID-19 nucleic acid test, among which 46 were tested preliminary positive and were referred to the Public Health Laboratory Services Branch of the Department of Health (DH) for confirmatory tests as well as subsequent follow-up and announcement. As at 3pm of today (September 15), DH had completed the confirmatory tests for 45 specimens including 32 new confirmed cases, five cases which were concurrently identified through tracing of close contacts and eight re-positive cases of recovered patients. As regards the remaining specimen, its quantity was insufficient in carrying out confirmatory test. The Centre for Health Protection had separately followed-up this case.
Among the 32 new confirmed cases identified under UCTP, 13 of them were asymptomatic and 20 of them were local cases with unknown source of infection. This reflects that through UCTP asymptomatic patients were identified and community transmission chain curbed. Among the 87 close contacts of the confirmed cases identified under UCTP, there were so far five confirmed cases. There might be more patients identified following further tracing of close contacts. This shows that UCTP has helped early isolation of confirmed cases and quarantine of their close contacts. Together with the five other cases identified concurrently through UCTP and tracing of close contacts, so far 42 confirmed cases in total were identified, with their transmission chain cut, through UCTP directly or indirectly. Statistics relating to epidemiological investigation under the UCTP are at Annex.
The spokesman said, “The Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government expressed gratitude to some 6 000 healthcare personnel and some 4 000 serving and retired civil servants supporting the arrangement of UCTP, as well as the some 2 000 personnel supporting information and technology, 24-hour hotline, logistics and safety management. The SAR Government also expressed sincere gratitude to the Central People’s Government (CPG) for deploying the Mainland nucleic acid test support team consisting of some 570 members and providing necessary equipment and resources for UCTP. UCTP attached importance to protect personal privacy and security management for specimens, with specifically designed registration system and logistics system applying multiple technologies, to ensure all specimens were safely delivered to laboratories from testing centres.”
Testing is an integral part of the strategy in fighting the virus. To tackle the third wave of the epidemic, the Government adopts a three-pronged approach in virus testing: (1) ongoing testing for epidemiological surveillance and investigation conducted by the DH and the Hospital Authority; (2) testing for high-risk and high-exposure groups as well as specific personnel for critical infrastructure and services since mid-July; and (3) the one-off UCTP in early September launched by the SAR Government with the support from CPG.
After the third wave of the epidemic and conclusion of UCTP, Hong Kong has since January conducted more than 3.23 million tests (including 2.88 million which were conducted since July). That is, on average around 430 000 tests were conducted per million population and 650 tests were carried out per confirmed cases. On this basis the volume of test conducted in Hong Kong is higher than places like Singapore, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan. It shows that the use of testing as a tool for disease prevention and control has yielded certain positive results. The SAR Government will take into account experts’ advice and collaborate with medical schools of universities in reviewing and summing up the work and experience gained in the prevention and control work from the third wave, including results of UCTP and other surveillance work, to map out the strategies in tackling the next wave of epidemic including that for testing.
The participation of individual members of the public contributes to the success of UCTP. Their support protect themselves and others by cutting the viral transmission chain together, paving way for relaxation of social distancing measures in an orderly manner, and for the gradual resumption to normal life and economic activities. Currently the epidemic situation in Hong Kong has improved though has yet to be completely stabilised. While the social distancing measures have been relaxed in a gradually and orderly manner, each and every members of the public should stay guarded and maintain good personal hygiene as well as precautionary measures to avoid any drastic rebound in local epidemic situation and to sustain the hard earned normal life and economic activities. read more