Chief Executive Carrie Lam today met young people appointed to government advisory committees through the Member Self-recommendation Scheme for Youth (MYSY) at Government House.

Similar meetings were hosted by Secretary for Innovation & Technology Alfred Sit, Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Christopher Hui and Acting Secretary for Home Affairs Jack Chan at Cyberport, the Central Government Offices and Youth Square.

The Chief Executive and the three senior officials met a total of 70 appointees to learn about their experience in participating in the committees’ work.

The current-term Government launched the pilot MYSY in late October 2017 for young people aged between 18 and 35 and committed to serve the community to self-nominate themselves to join government advisory and statutory bodies.

From 2018 onwards, the pilot scheme has been regularised and extended to cover more advisory boards and committees.

So far, five phases of the MSSY have been launched with over 8,200 applications being received. The application of the latest Phase V ended in mid-March and assessment is underway.

Those applicants attending the interviews are also invited to authorise the Home Affairs Bureau to include their personal particulars in the Central Personality Index database so that relevant bureaus and departments may retrieve the information for reference when they select candidates for appointment as members of advisory boards and committees.

Since the MSSY’s implementation, about 480 posts are held by young people who have been appointed to advisory boards and committees directly or indirectly through the scheme.

The ratio of youth members in these bodies has increased from 7.8% in end-2017 when the MSSY was launched, to 15.4% at the end of 2021, achieving the 15% target set by the current-term Government.

“I hope the MSSY will continue to attract talents through regularly offering seats of committees on policy areas of greater interests and concerns to young people, thus enabling more young people with a commitment to serve the community to join the scheme and to realise their full potential,” Mrs Lam said.