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Speaking at the Social Capital Builder Award Presentation Ceremony of the Community Investment and Inclusion Fund (CIIF) this evening (December 9), the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Carrie Lam, said that social capital is a valuable asset of Hong Kong. The active participation of various sectors in society is conducive to enhancing the cohesion and impact of mutual support networks in the community, so as to provide assistance to more needy groups in our society, she added.
To facilitate the development of social capital, the CIIF held the biennial CIIF Forum 2014 cum Social Capital Builder Award Presentation Ceremony today at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. Speaking at the ceremony, Mrs Lam noted that the co-operation between organisations running the Fund projects and various sectors in the community has been strengthened in recent years. She said she hoped that different sectors of society will continue to contribute towards the building up of social capital by participating in the diversified platform and explore together other social capital models that meet the diverse needs of the community with a view to boosting positive energy in society.
The CIIF launched the biennial Social Capital Builder Award Scheme in 2012 to commend and recognise individuals, enterprises and CIIF-funded project grantees for their contributions to the development of social capital in Hong Kong; to encourage enterprises to fulfill corporate social responsibility by promoting social capital; and to promote cross-sectoral collaboration and participation in building social capital in Hong Kong. The Award Scheme provides an opportunity for various sectors of the community to witness and share the achievements in building social capital in Hong Kong.
The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung; the Permanent Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Miss Annie Tam; the Chairman of the CIIF Committee, Dr Lam Ching-choi; and the Vice-chairman, Professor Joe Leung, also attended the Award Presentation Ceremony. Four enterprises and two individuals were presented with the Outstanding Social Capital Partnership Award, three projects were awarded the Outstanding Project Award and more than 100 enterprises were granted the Social Capital Builder Logo to recognise their status as pioneers of social capital building.
The theme of the full day CIIF Forum 2014 was "Social Capital: Together We Build a Caring Hong Kong". The Forum aims to share with participants the means to utilise social capital and collaborate cross-sectoral efforts, especially collaboration with business partners, in building a caring society in Hong Kong.
Speaking at the opening of the Forum, Mr Cheung pointed out that the CIIF has been adopting a people-oriented and responsive approach in meeting society's needs. Through promotion by the Fund, various innovative cross-sectoral collaborative models such as "medical-welfare-community", "business-government-community", "housing-welfare-community" and "family-school-community" have been established and become successful role models for the development of social capital in Hong Kong.
Mr Cheung said, "Over the past 12 years, the Fund has approved $336 million in funding for a total of 281 projects covering all 18 districts in Hong Kong. More than 7 000 collaborating partners have directly participated in the projects, with over 450 000 people taking part and about 1 600 mutual help networks successfully established. These are all tangible social capital projects, with the seeds of caring sowed by the Fund in the community.
"It is encouraging to note that the projects have successfully assisted more than 26 000 people in undergoing a role transformation progressing either from recipients of assistance to volunteers, or from participants/volunteers to leaders/organisers. Moreover, around 7 400 people have discovered self-value and built up confidence and abilities through participation in the projects, and thus successfully re-entered the labour market."
In his welcoming speech at the Forum, Dr Lam noted that universities have been appointed to conduct two achievement assessments on the Fund. The assessments indicated that the CIIF has been successful in enhancing mutual trust among people with different community backgrounds. The in-depth evaluation study conducted in Tin Shui Wai in 2012 further affirmed that building social capital and promoting public engagement in new communities are instrumental in strengthening social cohesion. As such, the Fund has subsidised a range of projects in recent years to support, in particular new communities such as the Kai Tak Development Area and the new housing estate in Ngau Tau Kok, with a view to speeding up the building of social capital so as to meet society's needs in a responsive manner.
"The CIIF has been actively promoting the core values of social capital, such as congregating community power and building mutual support and mutual trust through various channels including TV programmes, a drama competition among secondary school students, a mini animation design competition and so on to increase community awareness on social capital," Dr Lam said.
The CIIF Forum was jointly organised by the Labour and Welfare Bureau and the CIIF Committee, with the Social Welfare Advisory Committee, the Elderly Commission, the Rehabilitation Advisory Committee, the Women's Commission and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service as co-organisers. The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong, the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, and the Hong Kong General Chamber of Small and Medium Business were supporting organisations of the Forum.
Forum activities included a thematic forum, two seminars, a luncheon talk and six sessions of thematic discussion, covering issues of cross-sectoral collaboration among medical and social services and the community; active ageing; promoting employment for persons with disabilities and women, and more. More than 30 community leaders were invited to chair activities, give talks or share with participants their views on and experience in building social capital.
Ends/Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Issued at HKT 18:50
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