The following was a on-site report by Dr John Fung, Director of ITRC of our Council, on the major global debates related to information society:

Day 1
“….our Digital Solidarity Fund and Hong Kong, China has just been mentioned by a French-speaking delegation as an example of how local initiatives could help in financing digital inclusion programmes…..people are debating how an international Digital Solidarity Fund could be established to help poor and developing countries. China agrees, and so do many other developing countries. Japan, US, European countries disagree. A Task Group on the issue served by a Japanese secretariat gives out a report which says neither “yes” nor “no” and people aren't too happy about it.”

“….There was a freedom of expression seminar. It was very well attended. Some international journalists group people quoted the story of Article 23 in HK in their speech to illustrate how important it is to safeguard freedom of speech.”

Day 2
“….the outstanding issues of financial mechanism, ICT for development and internet governance are still big debates. They have gained a bit of progress but the views of different countries are so different. Digital Solidarity Fund is likely to be endorsed as a voluntary fund (voluntary participation). Internet governance is likely to go back to ICANN with improvements. Do you know that technically, with US controlling the root server of top level domain names they could technically shut down any country's internet anytime? In Somali war and war against Iraq, the two countries’ internet was shut down for a period (a week or so).....so it's like nuclear power....China has been very watchful and they have not indicated any views yet on both issues. Not that I heard of. China is considered as so strong a country now that its view will affect a lot of other countries' stance I guess…..

“The next Regional Conference of the Asia Pacific is going to be held in May 2005. A lot of countries offer to host it. UNESCAP is going to consider IRAN as the first choice because they offer the best conditions (fellowship airport pick up etc.)”

Since the implementation of CEPA, the trade and investment across Mainland and Hong Kong has become more intense. During the first and the second rounds of CEPA negotiation (CEPA I and II), a number of different service sectors had submitted their concerns and recommendations on the liberalization of trade in services between the 2 regions. According to the submission of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce for CEPA III, sectors having a nature of service similar to ours have already submitted their wish lists:

Is CEPA totally meaningless to our social service sector? We think that the answer is “no”! As the business activities between two places develop rapidly, more and more job opportunities for Hong Kong residents are found in the mainland. According to the Special Topic Report No. 38 on “Hong Kong Residents Working in Mainland of China”, a total of 244,000 Hong Kong residents had worked in the Mainland China in 2004, representing 7.6% of the working population in Hong Kong. Some 24.8% of 244,000 persons claimed that they had encountered difficulties in relation to law and order while working in the Mainland, 15.4 % separation from their family members, 11.8 % the Mainland’s legal system and 11% the use of different dialects. These figures reflect the emerging social needs of these cross-border nomadic employees. Room for the local social service sector to explore service development in the Mainland looms large.

Our Wish --- Wholly owned Operation
In order to address the increasing social needs of Hong Kong residents who work in the Mainland, a few social service agencies in Hong Kong have started providing their services in the Mainland in recent years, though the road has never been easy. Currently, social service agency (Hong Kong) planning to start a service in the Mainland will, first of all, have to find a recognized working partner in the Mainland to plan and implement the service jointly. Even if the social service agency (Hong Kong) identifies some new service needs during the implementation period, it cannot respond spontaneously without the consent of the Mainland partner. This runs contrary to the principle of “people-centred”. What is worst, a series of administrative procedure have greatly impeded service setup and daily operation, limiting the potential benefit of the service provided.

Our information shows that many of our Agency Members are now very concerned with how they can plan and provide social service in the Mainland more independently and conveniently. To address this concern, we can certainly try using CEPA to advance this agenda, as other similar organizations or professions have been doing.

We are now looking forward to a more flexible and open cooperation mechanism between two places and seeking for a higher autonomy and independency in service operation. A WHOLLY –OWNED operation establishment in a legally permissible form in the Mainland is going to enhance our capacity in responding to the social needs arising from regional economic development. We suggest choosing the province of Guangdong as a pioneering spot for testing out the feasibility of allowing Hong Kong service agency to set up the wholly owned operation in the Mainland.

Next Steps
Our next steps of lobbying and advocacy include:

1) Forwarding our wish list to the Financial Secretary and requesting him to raise it with the Mainland in the coming round of discussion and negotiation between Hong Kong SAR and Mainland in this year;
2) Lobbying the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food for his support to the sector’s wish
3) Communicating our wish to the public and soliciting support from those Hong Kong folks who are now working in the Mainland.

Among ourselves, it is time for us to identify those operation issues in a more concrete manner. Based on the suggestion raised in one of our consultation sessions, the Core Business on International and Regional Networking will soon create a mutual-help electronic platform for you to pose those issues or questions. Questions and experiences thus collected will be of great use for both individual service operators and for the sector as a whole to raise our concerns with the SAR government and the Central People’s government via CEPA.

We shall keep you updated of the progress of the initiatives mentioned above!

“What impressed me the most is that the government and the society in the UK is so affirmative to community development,” said Ms Joanne Sin of St. James’ Settlement, in the Seminar of Community Renewal and the Blueprint of Hong Kong Community Development, held on March 15, 2005. Over 180 people participated in the seminar

Joanne Sin, together with Lai Kin Kwok and Iris Chiu from the St James’ Settlement, and Chu Shuk Fan from Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council participated in the Study Visit on Community Development Practice in the UK in October last year and visited a number of CD projects both in England and in Scotland. During the seminar, they shared the insights gained from the visit. A number of guest speakers such as Dr. Wong Hung from the Social Work Department, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hon. Ada Wong, J.P, Chairperson of Wan Chai District Council, and Prof Nelson Chow from the University of Hong Kong were invited as well to speak on the subject.

“The Home Office has initiated 39 ‘New Deal for Community’ (NDC) projects in England. Each project lasts at least 10 years, is funded about GBP 56 million. Taking the Oceans area of London as an example, they envision in 10 years time the Oceans will be a beautiful place to live at the heart of London, rich in its culture, education and employment”, said Chu Shuk Fan.

There are 4 criteria for selecting the service area under the NDC, namely, crime rate, education level, low-income or high unemployment rate, and poor-housing. Oceans, as a selected site, is situated at Stepney of East London, with 2,000 households, about 6,500 population of which 80% is ethnic minorities. Each NDC project serves not more than 4,000 households. “Every project is of a small scale. They focus on quality, not only quantity.” added Chu.

Another project at Edinburgh they visited showed that the central policy and the infrastructure in Scotland are very ready to collaborate with citizens, thereby, encouraging their participation. Communities Scotland, which is the Scottish Executive's housing and regeneration agency, has a total sum of GBP600 million to fund programmes to develop strong communities and good housing quality. In particular, the regeneration division aims to develop sound knowledge and information base through research and neighbourhood intelligence, and support community learning and adult literacy.

One of the delegates Lai Kin Kwok explained, “The Scottish authorities foresee that 10 years later, the current generation will retire. This is why they think there is an urgent need to educate the next generation so as to equip to take up their future roles in the society. This is to ensure that no members in the community are deprived of the learning opportunity.”

“The UK government envisions a strong, active and empowered community. It is a vision in which everybody should have a sense of belonging and a stake in the society irrespective of their age, race or social background.” Lai said.

While the delegates expressed a view that what Hong Kong has done so far on community development is not bad, a question was raised during the seminar, that is, what is the mission for the SAR Administration in Community Development, and how can the NGOs collaborate with it?

Guest speaker Prof. Nelson Chow responded, “While Hong Kong has been talking about partnership for years, so far the partnership still relies too much on government’s subvention. Don’t forget the most important partner in community development is the local residents. However, it seems that little has been done to empower local people in the communities to participate in neighborhood renewal.”

Dr. Wong Hung concluded, “Perhaps, the most important is we have to redefine ‘what is community’.”

In parallel with the rapid development of regulated gambling in Hong Kong and other Asia Pacific countries, problem gambling has drawn increasing public concern in particular the need for culturally effective prevention and treatment services. Tung Wah Groups of Hospital, universities and organizations with gambling counselling services in Hong Kong will jointly organize the Inaugural Asian Pacific Problem Gambling Conference.

Conference Themes:
• Prevention and Education
• Cultural issues in problem gambling
• Social & Economic Policy
• Treatment & Interventions

Conference Date: November 23-24, 2005

For details of the Conference, please visit the Conference website: www.appgc.org or email to info@appgc.org.