************************************************************
The Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, said today (March 29) that the Government had allocated additional resources to introduce various measures to promote the development of social enterprise (SE). He called for the active support of the business sector and hoped that there would be more SE projects in future with the participation of the business sector.
Officiating at the "Road to Green: Striving for a Young New World" SE kick-off ceremony, Mr Tsang praised the scheme for promoting environmental protection while at the same time encouraging young people to build up confidence to make a contribution to society. He said the scheme had exemplified the role of the business sector in promoting the development of SEs and hoped that in future there would be more SE projects with the participation of the business sector to enhance social cohesion and foster a new caring culture.
Mr Tsang said that the Government had allocated additional resources to introduce measures to promote the setting up and development of SEs. The SE Partnership Programme newly launched by the Home Affairs Department enhances cross-sectoral collaboration through the matching forum and the mentorship scheme to promote the development of SEs.
"The matching forum will provide opportunities for business and non-governmental organisations to partner with each other to set up SEs, or facilitate the co-operation between SEs and business organisations which are interested in providing support services to SEs," Mr Tsang said.
"We also encourage the business sector to take part in the mentorship scheme to sign up as mentors, either in their company or individual capacities, to provide professional and business advisory services to SEs."
Mr Tsang added that the Government would step up the promotion of SE, including the launch of a new Announcement in Public Interest (API); the setting up of a new dedicated SE website; and the staging of exhibitions in various districts, so as to enhance public understanding of SEs and create a conducive market environment to enable SEs to flourish.
Calling on the community to make more use of the products and services provided by SEs, Mr Tsang said: "The products and services provided by SEs are of a wide variety. We are compiling an SE directory to list out the information on various products and services provided by SEs and their contacts. We plan to release the directory in the second quarter of this year."
He stressed that the Government would continue to liaise with various sectors to jointly promote the development of SEs to build a more harmonious and better Hong Kong.
Ends/Saturday, March 29, 2008
Issued at HKT 16:21
NNNN
