Chief Executive CY Leung today chaired the Commission on Poverty Summit 2016.
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam gave a presentation on the analysis of the poverty situation in Hong Kong last year.
The summit, the last for the current-term Government, started with opening remarks delivered by the Chief Executive.
He said poverty alleviation, elderly care and support for the disadvantaged are the priority policy areas of the current-term Government, and its poverty alleviation efforts are gradually delivering results.
Mrs Lam said 177,400 households and 373,500 people were lifted out of poverty last year, reducing the poverty rate by 5.4 percentage points to 14.3%.
The size of the poor population slightly increased to 970,000, which stayed below a million for the third consecutive year and remained at a low level for the past seven years.
Mrs Lam said employment is the best escape from poverty. The poverty rate of working households is notably lower than those of households in other economic groups.
The analysis of the poverty situation by the age of household heads, which is newly added this year, shows the effect of employment in poverty prevention.
Mrs Lam said future poverty alleviation efforts and resource allocation should focus on those most in need, to yield substantive poverty alleviation effects and improve the poverty situation.
About 500 guests attended the summit, including members of the commission and representatives from the political, business and academic sectors, think tanks, non-governmental organisations and concern groups, along with government officials.
