In last year's policy address, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen used the words 'social enterprise' nine times. This year he did not mention them even once. This glaring omission highlights how little progress has been made on this front during the past 12 months.
The government was supposed to encourage the private sector to 'befriend' social enterprises, introduce training programmes to nurture young entrepreneurs and organise fairs to raise community awareness and promote socially responsible consumption. None of these have happened.
Its one concession was to extend grants to social enterprises for purposes beyond job creation. Now, enterprises that work for the benefit of the elderly, children and youth and environmental development may also apply for the grant. Sadly, the key criterion of requiring applicants to be non-profit organisations remains.
This position taken by the government is not only myopic but contrasts sharply with practices overseas. Major countries, including Britain and the US, have introduced legislation that explicitly recognises that social enterprises seek to achieve social and/or environmental missions while making a profit.
In fact, there exists an entire new asset class, known as impact investing, that invests in the shares and bonds issued by social enterprises. Closer to home, a Singapore-based organisation is in the early stages of launching a stock exchange for these entities.
Until our government accepts that social enterprises should be encouraged to be financially viable, but not at the expense of their social or environmental missions, the sector will not take off. Tsang spoke of introducing training programmes to nurture young entrepreneurs in last year's policy address. And in the remaining nine months of his term, he can still fulfil his promise to the social enterprise sector.