Young People - Our Future Leaders

Youth development tops social development agenda; social policies to take account of youth. Young adults to play bigger role in community affairs; advisory boards to co-opt younger members. Expand Youth Pre-employment Training Programme; continue "Project Springboard". Further study on youth work co-ordination and consultation mechanism.

Helping the Poor and the Needy

$2.7 billion in the next two years to help the poor. Address the problem at source by providing more opportunities for education and ensuring sustained economic development. $400 million for training over 2 years for employed and unemployed workers with low education level. Propose recurrent subvention of $400 million for the Employees Retraining Board (ERB) starting next financial year. Education and Manpower Bureau and ERB to consider the establishment of a fund to support retrainees to start business. Labour Department to launch a trial one-stop service for older, long-term unemployed; training subsidies for their new employers. $10 million to help 2,000 long-term unemployed over 40 years old. Enhance referral and outreach services to the poor. About 15,000 new jobs to be created, 7,000 of which from social investments. Speed up re-housing of low-income elderly applicants. Review the old age allowance scheme. To help remove the "digital divide" faced by children of the poor, the Quality Education Fund to allocate $200 million to buy notebook computers for needy students to borrow.

Culture and Sports

The Culture and Heritage Commission has started work. Work with District Councils, sports organisations and schools to encourage sports. Strengthen our co-operation with sports associations to raise professional sports standards. Co-ordinate with sports sector in bid to host the 2006 Asian Games.