The Hong Kong government attaches great importance to helping ethnic minority groups integrate into the wider community, and much effort has been made in the past few years to cater to their needs in diverse areas, including education, employment and social participation. At the same time, the government has been working to enhance local Chinese understanding of ethnic minority cultures.

For the next school year, the government will provide subsidies to kindergartens that join the kindergarten education scheme and admit non-Chinese-speaking students, as well as additional funding and professional support for government-funded secondary schools that admit non-Chinese-speaking students.

Children with special educational needs will also get more support. Special care centres and early education and training centres will receive subsidies to strengthen support for preschool ethnic minority children with special needs. In addition, government-funded schools will also have more resources to support non-Chinese-speaking students with special needs.

Another raft of measures will focus on strengthening ethnic minorities’ competitiveness in the job market and supporting their upward mobility. The government will collaborate with NGOs to launch a pilot programme to provide employment services for ethnic minority jobseekers, and enhance retraining support for ethnic minorities.

Even ethnic minority students are not left out: the administration will introduce a pilot internship programme within the government for these future jobseekers to gain some experience.

Last but not least, many measures will be in place to enhance ethnic minorities’ access to public services:

• Enhance interpretation services at various service centres.
• Improve the administrative guidelines on the promotion of racial equality, for application to all government bureaus and departments, as well as related organisations providing services to ethnic minorities.
• Provide civil servants with training on cultural sensitivity and equal opportunities.
• Set up teams comprising ethnic minorities to reach out to the wider ethnic minority community, to improve their access to welfare services.
• Set up specialised ethnic minority units in the resource centres that provide support to the carers of people with disabilities.
• Increase resources for special childcare centres, as well as early education and training centres, to step up community support for ethnic minority families in need.
• Allocate more resources to NGOs to raise awareness of domestic violence and sexual violence, to encourage victims to seek help.

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These measures demonstrate the government’s continuous and unwavering support to Hong Kong’s ethnic minority community and its determination to develop Hong Kong into an inclusive society where different ethnic groups can thrive and shine.

To promote social inclusion, the Home Affairs Department will organise more district-based activities to encourage interaction between ethnic minorities and local communities. Our disciplined forces will also enhance interaction with ethnic minority children and young people through their school-based outreach programmes.

We value the views of ethnic minorities and have made every effort to bring their voices into the government. A number of government advisory committees, including the Commission on Children, the Youth Development Commission and the Human Resources Planning Commission, have taken the lead to appoint ethnic minorities as members.

The new measures are expected to improve the existing support services and bridge the gaps in our current ethnic minority support network. The steering committee on ethnic minority affairs will oversee and closely monitor their implementation. We hope the whole community can join hands with the government in enhancing support for Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities and building a truly harmonious and inclusive Hong Kong.

Matthew Cheung Kin-chung is chief secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region