New commission re-established to fight poverty

Appointments to the new Commission on Poverty were revealed by the Hong Kong government on Friday. Members will sit for a two-year term beginning Dec 1, 2012. The commission, which has six task forces, comprises four ex-officio members and 18 non-official members. They include four lawmakers, representatives from the business community and also former director of social services.

Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam, who will chair the commission and its Social Security and Retirement Protection Task Force, said the commission has the participation of the highest echelon of government. She said she has high expectations for the re-established commission, and will strive to do the work well, including formulation of a poverty line as a tool for gauging poverty and assessing the effectiveness of anti-poverty policies.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying will chair annual summits of the commission, to bring together relevant sectors of the community, to set and reinforce strategic directions.

Several commission members expressed the hope that the government would adopt a new mindset toward poverty alleviation, instead of simply "giving out sweeties".

Lawmaker Frederick Fung, who was a member of the old commission on poverty during the time of former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, said he hoped that the re-established commission would play a stronger role in helping to ease the plight of the poor.

Since the old commission was set up under social pressure, said Fung, it was not proactive enough. This time is different, as the commission was initiated by the CE himself. When Carrie Lam invited him to join, she expressed the wish to handle the poverty problem effectively, and so he has great expectations for the new commission. In particular, he hopes to address the elderly retirement protection and youth employment problems.

Another commission member and lawmaker Michael Tien, who comes from the business sector, said it is more important to help low-income people to acquire skills to keep them out of poverty. Tien is also concerned about prospects for upward mobility among young people. Since many young people have creative flair, there is a need to absorb them through development of creative industry.

Stephen Fisher, former secretary-general of the old poverty commission, said "This time, I hope the government will adopt a new mindset by not choosing to rely on distribution of sweeties or short-term concessionary measures."

joseph@chinadailyhk.com