The public seminar
is organized jointly with CPU. It is also co-organized by Civic
Exchange, Business and Professionals Federation of Hong Kong, Hong
Kong People's Council for Sustainable Development, Hong Kong Policy
Research Institute Ltd. and SynergyNet. The joint organization of
the seminar by government, business and professional sectors and
NGOs actualizes the spirit for all these essential sectors of society
to join hands in combating poverty.
We have invited three overseas
speakers to speak on the international trends of and fight against
poverty: Professor Peter Townsend, Ms. Jean Corston and Dr. Yap
Mui Teng. Professor Townsend is of high renown in the analysis and
measurement of poverty and in advocacy for eradiating poverty. Ms.
Corston is the Chair of Parliamentary Labour Party in UK and also
Chair of Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights in Great
Britain. She is therefore well acquainted with UK government��s work
over eradiating / reducing poverty and social exclusion. Dr. Yap
is a scholar in Singapore well versed in Singapore��s poverty issue.
The second part of the public seminar
is a cross sectoral discussion session. Dr. Sammy Chiu will share
views of those living in poverty on poverty itself and on ways to
alleviate poverty. These views were collected from a series of focus
group meeting and interviews attended by those living in poverty.
Representative from our Council will talk on NGOs�� continuous effort
in tackling poverty.
Some members of the five co-organizers
are now attending poverty visits. They would then hold focus group
meeting to examine and propose how business sector, professionals
and other sectors could contribute to reducing poverty. A representative
from this group will share the views in the seminar. |