Policy Address
Connecting with Young People
160. Over the past two years, Hong Kong has faced severe challenges, prompting us to rethink the positioning and focus of our youth work. On the one hand, we should establish more effective channels to gauge the views of young people of different backgrounds in order to better meet their needs in areas such as education, career pursuits, housing, upward mobility and development of their potential. On the other hand, we need to put more emphasis on nurturing young people’s positive thinking to help them develop positive values, and enable them to become a new generation with a sense of responsibility, and with an aspiration and willingness to strive for the future of our country and of Hong Kong. In this connection, I will invite the Youth Development Commission to explore ways to enrich its existing programmes and launch new funding initiatives. For the Policy Address public consultation this year, I have arranged three special sessions to meet with students and young people and listened to their views in person. I hope there will be more exchange opportunities following the delivery of this Policy Address.
161. The Central Government also cares about our young people. The 14th Five-Year Plan mentions facilitating the young people of Hong Kong and Macao to study, work and start businesses in the Mainland cities of the GBA, and establishing a brand of quality exchanges among the young people of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Recently, the Central Authorities and relevant municipal governments have also introduced measures to support the development of Hong Kong young people in the Mainland, including support for the Funding Scheme for Youth Entrepreneurship in the GBA and the GBA Youth Employment Scheme as stated in my Policy Address last year, as well as support for enhancing various Mainland internship and exchange programmes.
162. To encourage young people to participate in policy discussion, we have regularised the Member Self-recommendation Scheme for Youth (MSSY), under which young people aged between 18 and 35 are recruited on a regular basis to participate in government advisory committees. Up till now, around 440 posts are held by about 270 young people who have been appointed to ASBs through the MSSY. The overall ratio of appointed youth members in ASBs has increased from 7.8% at the end of 2017 to currently 14.8%, gradually reaching the target of 15% set by the current-term Government.
