The business sector should actively participate in social enterprise projects and fulfil corporate social responsibility to jointly foster a new caring culture, Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing says.

Speaking at a New Territories General Chamber of Commerce dinner reception today, Mr Tsang said the principal vision of social enterprises is to promote the concept of helping people to be self-reliant.

A social enterprise must be run as a self-financing business. However, different from other business enterprises, its ultimate objective was to promote the well-being of the community. Its profit should be principally reinvested in the business itself or in the community but not for maximising the benefit of its shareholders.

As regards corporate social responsibility, Mr Tsang said it generally refers to a corporate taking up of civic and social responsibility consciously.

"Although there are differences between social enterprises and corporate social responsibility, the promotion of these two concepts would achieve synergy effect and fully demonstrate the importance of enterprises in fostering a caring culture," he added.

Sustained development

To achieve sustained development of social enterprises, Mr Tsang said it is important to create an enabling market environment for their development. Apart from offering seed money in a number of specified areas to support social enterprises during their initial operations, the Government will strive to promote the understanding of social enterprises amongst the public. A booklet will be published to introduce successful social enterprises both in Hong Kong and overseas to the community.

A summit on social enterprises will be held December 20 to boost public understanding and offer a platform for the Government, the business sector and non-governmental organisations to explore the way forward for the further development of social enterprises in Hong Kong, and to formulate an action plan.

"The successful development of social enterprises hinges on the tri-partite partnership of the Government, the business sector and NGOs, in particular the creativity of our entrepreneurs. We encourage local entrepreneurs to participate in the development of social enterprises. Recently, we have successfully liaised with several major organisations which have expressed interest in starting up social enterprise projects," Mr Tsang said.