Five-hundred people from various sectors, including the business community, non-governmental organisations, academia and the Government took part in the Community Investment & Inclusion Fund Forum today.
Speaking at the forum, Secretary for Labour & Welfare Matthew Cheung underlined the Government’s commitment to building social capital, noting that since the fund was established in 2002 a total of $432 million has been disbursed for 323 projects.
“More than 650,000 participants, including over 80,000 volunteers and 8,700 enthusiastic collaborative partners, directly took part in the projects and together built over 2,000 mutual help networks," he said.
The scheme also funded 18 types of social capital projects in several newly built public housing estates last year to facilitate the development of mutual help networks among old and new tenants, and to foster the integration of new residents.
“In view of our ageing population, the fund rolled out 12 new projects in July this year to establish robust neighbourhood support networks for the elderly, in particular elderly singletons and elderly couples," he added.
The Community Investment & Inclusion Fund under the Labour & Welfare Bureau has been holding the thematic forum since 2003 and the theme this year is "Mutual Trust. Mutual Help. Interaction".
