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Summarising the feedback received from the four-month engagement process on population policy spearheaded by the Council for Sustainable Development, participants at the Strategy Summit held today (December 20) reached the consensus that the core components of a sustainable population policy for Hong Kong included quality of life, declining fertility rate, manpower issues and an ageing population.
They considered that endeavours could be made on the living and working environment to upgrade the quality of life, including the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, family-friendly measures and the enhancement of environmental protection and urban planning.
Facing a declining fertility rate, they suggested the Government to implement measures conducive to child bearing and child rearing, and reinforce the importance of family functions and support.
On manpower issues, they considered that the training, retraining and continuing education of the local workforce should be enhanced, and suitable talent should be admitted to Hong Kong. Facing an ageing society, there were views that the healthy and active ageing should be promoted, and the accessibility needs of the elderly should be catered for in the built environment.
In his opening remarks, member of the Council and Chairman of the Council's Strategy Sub-committee, Ir Otto Poon, said: "The objective of today's Strategy Summit is to conclude the community views on the population policy issues and to come up with some fundamental principles. This will help the Council formulate its report and recommendations to be put forward to the Government."
More than 100 participants took part in the Strategy Summit. They came from the business, school, social service, district community and youth sectors, etc.
Convenor of the Council's Support Group on Population Policy, Professor Wong Siu-lun, in his conclusions said that the Council would build on the stakeholder consensus to prepare its report and put forward its recommendations to the Government in the first half of 2007.
The Council launched the Invitation and Response document "Enhancing Population Potential for a Sustainable Future" in June this year, to start off the Council's second engagement process to engage the community in a dialogue exploring the options for a sustainable population policy.
During the past few months, the Council organised a series of engagement events, which included three regional forums, five regional workshops, and 15 engagement events co-organised with partner organisations. The Council had distributed more than 17,000 copies of the Council's Invitation and Response document. The Council received more than 3,000 responses, which included written comments, leaflet responses, messages on online discussion forum, etc. More than 1,600 people attended the engagement events.
Information on the Council's engagement process and reports of individual forums and workshops are available on the Sustainable Development Strategy website (www.susdev.org.hk).
Ends/Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Issued at HKT 19:21
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