Chief Executive John Lee said in his 2024 Policy Address that he attaches great importance to building a caring and inclusive society, providing targeted assistance to the underprivileged and families in need, in addition to strengthening labour support.

To direct resources to those most in need to alleviate poverty, the Government will expand the Strive & Rise Programme by recruiting 4,000 mentees this year and set up three additional community living rooms in areas clustered with sub-divided units.

Mr Lee also outlined various measures to strengthen elderly services, such as increasing the total number of vouchers under the Residential Care Service Voucher Scheme for the Elderly by 20% to 6,000, allowing more frail seniors to be admitted to residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) of their choice and receive subsidised care services without waiting.

Additionally, the Government plans to enhance the Residential Care Services Scheme in Guangdong by increasing the number of participating RCHEs from the existing four to 11 in November of this year, sharing part of the elderly participants’ medical expenses and engaging organisations to provide care services to help the elderly adapt to living in Guangdong.

Furthermore, Mr Lee noted that the Government will launch a three‑year pilot scheme next year to subsidise elderly recipients of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance retiring in Guangdong to reside in designated RCHEs in Guangdong Province, with each eligible elderly person receiving a monthly subsidy of $5,000, subject to a quota of 1,000.

To strengthen support for persons with disabilities, the Government will establish 14 Integrated Community Rehabilitation Centres across the city. Apart from providing 1,280 additional service places to support such individuals, an additional district support centre in New Territories East will be set up.

For ethnic minorities, the Government will engage one more support service centre to provide interpretation and translation services next year, on top of the two additional centres which will begin operation by the end of this year. 

The Education Bureau plans to strengthen Chinese learning support and parental assistance for non‑Chinese speaking students, Mr Lee added.

He also announced the setting up of one more child care centre to support working parents. Service places under the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project will be increased by 25%, to 2,500, with the estimated number of beneficiaries reaching 25,000.

As for the District Services & Community Care Teams, the Chief Executive revealed that the Government will regularise the funding provision and increase funding by 50% in the next term of service in support of their work.

It will also expand the Pilot Scheme on Supporting Elderly & Carers to cover all 18 districts in the next year, identifying and reaching out to households in need.

Regarding measures to strengthen labour support, Mr Lee emphasised that the Employees Retraining Board will be reformed, from providing employment‑related training targeted at low‑skilled workers to devising skills‑based training programmes and strategies for the entire workforce.

Other measures to protect employees include enhancing the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund, implementing the new annual review mechanism of the statutory minimum wage and amending the continuous contract requirement under the Employment Ordinance.

Mr Lee explained what the Government is doing to encourage employment among middle-aged and elderly people.

“The three‑year Re‑employment Allowance Pilot Scheme was launched in July, with more than 20,000 participants to date. The Labour Department will continue the scheme and, through the Good Employer Charter 2024, encourage employers to adopt family‑friendly employment practices such as flexible work arrangements.”

He stressed that promoting occupational safety and health is of key importance to his administration.

“The Government has been encouraging the industry to provide a safer working environment.  Among other things, it mandated, in July, the adoption of the Smart Site Safety System (4S) for mobile plants in designated private‑building works, and issued the first batch of 4S labelling. 

“We will strengthen the protection of workers’ safety under a three‑pronged approach, formulating safety guidelines, promoting optimal use of robotic technology and enhancing industry training.”