The mission of the Core Business on International and Regional Networking is to help the Council to achieve it's strategic goals by building networks, pooling external resources, introducing different and diverse visions, and consolidating knowledge and experiences from overseas and the Mainland. Through interactive processes, CB5 functions to facilitate the local welfare sector to keep abreast of and participate in the international agenda on social welfare and social development so that it can enjoy more resources for making their own rational and informed decisions for the short and long term development of social welfare and social development in Hong Kong.

Mainland News

International and Regional News

Conference News

Special Words from Business Director

CEPA and HK-GuangDong Cooperation

With the signing of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Hong Kong and the Mainland as well as the endorsement of a HK-GuangDong Cooperation Framework, cooperation and exchange between Hong Kong and the Mainland will intensify in terms of trading of goods and services as well as increased flow of people across the border. The short-term effects on Hong Kong economic and commercial activities with the Mainland (GuangDong Province in specific) have already been witnessed, vividly described as the “first mouthful of soup” for Hong Kong businessmen to land on the China market. From a social development angle, however, the Council is deeply concerned with the social and cultural impacts of CEPA and HK-GuangDong Cooperation blueprint on people while welcomes their potential economic benefits.

In order to provide an occasion for social welfare professionals to get to know more about CEPA and better understand its impacts on the human and social development its implications to our service development of Hong Kong and the Mainland (especially the Greater Pearl River Delta region), the Core Business conducted a seminar entitled "CEPA: Opportunities and Challenges to Social Development of Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta Region" on September 3, 2003. Mr Xie Pengfei ( 謝鵬飛 ), Deputy Director-General of the People's Government of GuangDong Province and Director of the Center for Development Research of the People's Government of Guangdong Province, Mr Stephen Yau, Chairman of our Standing Committee on International and Regional Networking, and Ms Christine Fang, our Chief Executive introduced CEPA and shared with us their views on the potential impacts of CEPA on the future social development of the Greater Pearl River Delta region.

Before and after the seminar, the Core Business met with Mr Xie and briefed him about our concerns, showed him our service initiatives and subsequently sent an initial proposal on "Fostering Closer Cross-border Social Service Cooperation." The proposal included our 2 major recommendations, which were also sent to Mr Tung Chee-hua, the Chief Executive of HKSAR. The recommendations are:

• To add an Expert Group on Social Service Support under the HK-GuangDong Cooperation Framework to investigate and plan a complementary social and human development strategy for regional cooperation and integration.
• To foster Hong Kong social service NGOs to provide social services in the Mainland against the backdrop of CEPA

In the following months, the Council will substantiate our proposal ideas by liaising with relevant HKSAR, GuangDong and Central government departments, discussing with the Center of Development Research on the feasibility of regional discussion platform (such as Regional Roundtable), and identifying problems and issues pertaining to service operation in the Mainland and social planning that deserve further attention and actions. Agency Members are welcome to give us some feedback or suggestions.

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The Progress of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

Preparation for WSIS

In order for our local civil society groups to keep abreast of the two phrases of the Summit, we organized two round table sessions on Aug 26 and Oct 30, 2003 respectively. Participants were stakeholders of different civil society groups who were concerned about digital divide and interested in building an inclusive and equitable information society.

Achievements

While the details of the Summit will soon be summarized and introduced in the forthcoming follow-up activities, what deserves a special highlight is that the Council as well as other organizations from Hong Kong has had a number of achievements.

1. Due to the Council's persistent participation in the Summit Process through the global and Asia-Pacific civil society networks since Asia Civil Society Forum organized by CONGO at Bangkok in December 2002 and WSIS Asia Pacific Regional Conference at Tokyo in January 2003, we got a chance to nominate Dr C.K. Law, our delegation leader, to speak in an official programme of the Summit, namely, one of the 4 Roundtable Sessions focusing on "ICT as a tool to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals". At the UN high-level Summit, it is rare that a local NGO can speak in its official programme. It is certainly a big achievement that a Hong Kong civil society entity could speak in an official session in a professional and knowledgeable manner. For those who are interested to watch or listen to the session, please go the following website and retrieve the video and audio files: http://www.itu.int/wsis/geneva/coverage/archive-en-rtl.asp.
2. The website featuring Chinese Culture was awarded a e-Content Award in an event called World Summit Award for E-Content and Creativity. The website is a creative effort of a local NGO called Hong Kong Education City of using a website to foster students’ understanding of the traditional Chinese Culture. For those interested in browsing the website, please go to http://www.chiculture.net.
3. Our position in the Asia-Pacific Civil Society Caucus and the related global network has been strengthened, which would greatly facilitate our future follow-up actions at the local, regional and global levels.
4. The Council has made significant contribution to a Civil Society Declaration, side-by-side the official Declaration, in which a lot of concrete suggestions and recommendations have been raised and will be followed up in the Phase 2 of WSIS. A copy of the Civil Society Declaration is obtainable by sending an email to our Chief Officer, Mr Anthony Wong, at anthony.wong@hkcss.org.hk

Follow-up Actions

A number of follow-up actions are underway.

1. The Council's delegation has decided to organize an Extended Roundtable on Information Society, built upon the successes in the first and second roundtables before the Summit, to involve different stakeholders (including relevant government bureaux and departments) to strategize implementing the Action Plan adopted in the First Phase of the Summit.
2. Based on the Global Action Plan adopted, making reference as well to the Civil Society Declaration endorsed, and the suggestions raised previously by the Council with the Legislation Council, our Council will strive to foster the implementation of measures that contribute to building a just and inclusive information society in Hong Kong and monitor the government in implementing the Global Action Plan locally.
3. The Global Civil Society has decided not to dissolve the existing networking and Civil Society Secretariat and will proceed directly to preparing for the Phase 2 of the Summit. The Council will continue to actively participate in the global civil society discussion process and keep our network with concerned groups and individuals in the forthcoming years.

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

Among all the reports due for submission to the United Nations this year, it is expected that the formal hearing will be held the meeting of Committee on Discrimination Against Women at the United Nations in 2004.

In order to solicit Agency Members' views on the involvement of the Council in response to both the forthcoming formal hearing at the United Nations and the low level of awareness and understanding about CEDAW in the social service sector, a Consultation Forum on CEDAW was held in October 30, 2003. Participants gave a lot of concrete ideas and suggestions to the Council and expressed during the Forum their great interest in having further discussions on women-centred and right-based social service planning. In view of this, the Council and the Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centres will jointly organize a CEDAW Training Workshop on “Women-Centred Social Service in Hong Kong – Theory and Practices” on Jan 14, 2004. The workshop will facilitate more in-depth discussion on the concepts and effectiveness of women-centred service planning and sharing of practical experience in this area.

You may also visit the following website for downloading the text of the convention (Chinese version is available.) and also member states' reporting details: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw.

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International Conventions Related Educational Resource

The Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor has produced a set of display boards on Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR) and international standard for educational and promotional purposes. For those who are looking for resources on this subject, please refer to the flyer attached. Further information can be obtained from the following website: http://www.hkhrm.org.hk/chinese/booklets/display_board/index.html.

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The 7th International Conference of Human Services Information Technology Applications (HUSITA7)

The HUSITA7 has been re-scheduled for Aug 24-27, 2004 due to the SARS outbreak. Keynote and Plenary Speakers have been confirmed. It is our great honour to have Keynote speakers from the World Bank and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Details as below:

Dr Nagy Hanna, Senior Advisor, e-development, The World Bank

His presentation topic is: "e-development for Knowledge Economy, Institutional Changes and Social Inclusion."

Dr Tim Kelly, Head, Strategy and Policy Unit, ITU

His presentation topic is: "The World Summit on the Information Society and Digital Inclusion."

For other details of our plenary session, you are welcome to visit our Conference homepage: http://www.hkcss.org.hk/husita7.

The Conference, with its theme of "Information and Communication Technology and Social Inclusion," strives to promote international knowledge development, dissemination and transfer of technology within human service sector. It aims to facilitate meaningful exchange among different regions so as to enhance further development of IT application in social services. It is also an ideal platform for international experts and our local counterparts to share their researches and programs are going to benefit a large number of local and regional colleagues. Your participation is definitely important in making this Conference a success and in demonstrating our local social sector's support for ethical and effective use of IT to better serve humanity.

You are invited to not only participate in the Conference but also share your project at our workshops. For details about paper submission, please click here.

In order to encourage more of our agency members to attend the Conference, a subsidy equivalent to 50% of the registration fee will be provided. Details will be announced in early 2004.

If you are interested in receiving Conference updates in future, click here and provide us with your contact information.

Council's Participation in International and Regional Events

Delegations (Oct-Dec) Sent:

1. TEACCH Training Programme cum Post-event Study Visit (Oct 6-10, 2003; Asheville and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA)
2. Training on "Building a Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence" cum Study Visit (Oct 7-14, 2003; Duluth, Minnesota, USA)
3. 23th International Fundraising Congress (Oct 14-17, 2003; Norrdwijkerhout, the Netherlands)
4. 61st American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) Annual Conference (Oct 16-19, 2003; California, USA)
5. 6th International Conference on Care Management cum Pre-event Study Visit (Oct 22-29, 203; Philadelphia, USA)
6. Study Visit to Europe on New Employment Initiative for Persons with Disabilities (Nov 3-14, 2003; Europe)
7. Study Visit on Youth Justice System and Alternative Measures to Prosecution for Young Offenders (Nov 3-7, 2003; Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand)
8. Study Visit on Gambling Counseling and Related Services (Oct 11-17, 2003; Sydney, Australia)
9. Intensive Training Programme by Peto Andras Institute cum Post-event Study Visit (Nov 10-21, 2003; Budapest, Hungary and London, UK)
10. 6th International Abilympics (Nov 23-29, 2003; New Delhi, India)
11. Asia and Pacific Disability Forum (APDF) Inaugural Meeting and Conference 2003 for the 2nd Decade of Disabled Persons cum Pre-event Study Visit (Nov 24-28, 2003; Singapore)
12. Elderly Participation: Study Visit on University of Third Age in Australia (Dec 1-5, 2003; Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia)
13. 30th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of ICSW (Dec 8-12, 2003; Taipei, Taiwan)
14. World Summit on the Information Society and NGO Forum (Dec 8-12, Geneva, Switzerland)

Delegations in Preparation:

15. CIVICUS 2004 World Assembly (Mar 21-25, 2004; Gaberbrone, Botswana)
16. Annual Conference 2004 of Association of Fundraising Professionals cum Post-event Study Visit on Resource Development in US (Mar 14-24, 2004; Seattle and San Francisco, USA)
17. Local subsidy application for Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Prevention of Elderly Suicide (Mar 24-26, 2004; Hong Kong)

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It is my great privilege to proudly introduce this new issue of the e-Bridge to you in the New Year, with a new and bright header designed by my very capable colleagues who are full of creativity. Leading this team has been particularly enjoyable and enriching for me.

Our subject area : international and regional networking is so exciting. In this ‘City of Life' , as coined by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, we must be connected to the world and participate in the global and regional arena, in order to be ahead of the times. With a modest set-up in the Council, the International and Regional Networking (IRN) staff, under the expert guidance of the Standing Committee on IRN, are trying very hard to do exactly this in the social service field. You can read about our efforts, activities and achievements in this and the previous e-Bridge reporting.

However, we cannot do it alone. I appeal to your participation in this meaningful venture through reading the e-Bridge and our web-page, joining our delegations overseas, attend our many report-back seminars, sending us interesting articles/web-links, and best of all, give us feedback !

By the time you read this e-Bridge, I would have left the Council in my capacity as Business Director (International and Regional Networking), closing an important chapter of my work life. I still have great passion for this important area of work and have happily accepted the appointment of being an Hon Advisor of the Standing Committee on International and Regional Networking of the Council. So I shall stay connected in my new capacity.

I would like to take this opportunity to heartily thank Mr Stephen Yau and Mr Andrew Chan, Chair and Vice Chair of the Standing Committee (IRN) and all the Committee members, past and present, for their able leadership, commitment, going all the way to walk through the hurdles with our staff, and the intellectual and emotional support bestowed to me and my colleagues. A great big THANKS to all !

I am sure that with joint efforts, we can carry the mission forward !

MY BEST REGARDS TO YOU FOR A HEALTHY AND HAPPY 2004 !

Kay Ku

Your suggestions and comments are most welcome. You can contact the following staff of the Core Business on International and Regional Networking:

Mr Anthony WONG
Chief Officer
Tel: 2864 2993
Fax: 2528 4230
Email: anthony.wong@hkcss.org.hk