A symposium on safeguarding national security for Hong Kong’s social welfare sector, jointly organised by the Labour & Welfare Bureau, the Social Welfare Department and Connecting Hearts, was held today.

Officiated by Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki, the symposium attracted over 8,000 participants from the local social welfare sector who took part both online and offline.

Secretary for Labour & Welfare Chris Sun and Director-General of the Social Work Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Liu Songlin also attended the symposium.

While addressing the forum, Mr Chan highlighted that the Government has achieved fruitful results in safeguarding national security and promoting patriotic education over the past year or so.

Such achievements include the completion of the legislation on Article 23 of the Basic Law that ensures the smooth implementation of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance as well as the amendments to the Social Workers Registration Ordinance which foster a better environment for social welfare professionals to leverage their expertise.

Mr Chan said that the social welfare sector is charged with the important and long-term responsibilities in serving the community and caring for the public. It is also their mission and duty to safeguard national security.

He urged the sector to continue collaborating with the Government to sustain efforts in safeguarding national security, thereby ensuring the healthy development of welfare services in Hong Kong and enhanced safeguards for public well-being.

A sharing session was held at the symposium where Mr Sun was joined by representatives from the social welfare sector, including professors from education institutions, management of social welfare organisations and professional social workers, to explore how the sector can fulfil its responsibility of safeguarding national security and promote patriotic education.

Mr Sun said that the Labour & Welfare Bureau and the Social Welfare Department have been working closely with social welfare organisations in the previous year to promote national security education within the sector through organising symposiums, seminars and visits with a view to enhancing the sector's understanding of national affairs.

He added that a dedicated fund of $500 million was rolled out last year, in which $100 million was allocated to non-governmental organisations operating subvented welfare services to arrange Mainland exchange tours and national studies programmes for their staff.