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The Youth Summit 2015 jointly organised by the Home Affairs Bureau and the Commission on Youth (CoY) will be held at the Youth Square in Chai Wan on March 7 (Saturday). Young people from different backgrounds will exchange views with the Chief Executive, Mr C Y Leung, as well as Principal Officials and community personalities.
At the summit, the Chief Executive will listen to the participants' views on youth development policy and respond to questions from the audience and those submitted online. The Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing; the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung; the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim; and community personalities will also attend to have direct dialogue with the young people and listen to their concerns and suggestions.
The Youth Summit aims to provide young people with a platform to express views on social policies. The theme of this year's summit is "Opportunities and Future in the Eyes of Youth", under which three sub-themes have been set to encourage exchanges on various issues of concern. The three sub-themes selected through online voting by young people are "Opportunities and Future in the Eyes of Youth with the Wide Accessibility of Higher Education", "Opportunities and Future in the Eyes of Youth with the Disparity between Rich and Poor in our Community" and "Opportunities and Future in the Eyes of Youth in a Community with Growing Civic Awareness".
Young participants aged 15 to 24 were recruited through the CoY website and the 18 District Offices of the Home Affairs Department to attend the summit. It is hoped that the views of young people from different backgrounds and organisations, and including those in school and at work, can be represented at the summit. A number of Youth Ambassadors were also recruited to assist in preparatory work and facilitating discussion among the young participants on different sub-themes.
The participants have been busy preparing for the summit in the past few months. In early February, they attended a pre-summit workshop to exchange views with government officials, academics and guests and conducted group discussions on each sub-theme. To better prepare for the summit, participants are collating data and holding discussions in groups, and they will give a presentation to summarise their views on relevant policies at the summit.
Other young people and those who are interested in the sub-themes can watch the entire summit live on the CoY website (www.coy.gov.hk) and can submit questions on the topics to be discussed at the summit via the same website from tomorrow (February 28) at 0.01am until 6pm on March 6. The guests will respond to some of the online questions drawn by ballot at the summit.
Ends/Friday, February 27, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:46
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