29 June 2006 - Press Release
BEC Supports Council for Sustainable Development to Engage Business Community to express views on Sustainable Population Policy

The Council for Sustainable Development is now engaging the community in a discussion on the sustainable population policy for Hong Kong. BEC is honoured to be one of the eight partner organisations invited by the Council to co-organise programmes for engaging the public in the discussion on sustainable population policy for HK. As a leading business organisation advocating sustainable development, BEC will organise a seminar-cum-forum "Enhancing Hong Kong's Population Potential - From Business Perspective" on 26 October 2006 (Thursday) to collect views from the business sector.

The Invitation and Response (IR) document Enhancing Population Potential for a Sustainable Future (click here http://www.susdev.org.hk/archive/en/pdf/IRdocument.pdf to download) was released by the Council for Sustainable Development on 29 June 2006 made some initial attempts to discuss the challenges in Hong Kong's future population structure and its potential in building a vibrant economy and healthy society. The possible roles in influencing the trend and options for addressing these challenges, such as family-friendly practices, job creation, promotion of work-life balance, increasing retirement age, variety in employment opportunities have been raised in the document.

In the seminar-cum-forum on 26 October 2006, speakers will be invited to share his view on the above challenges and the options for addressing it. Expert from an international human resources company will also share the findings of an overseas research examining how employers and workers anticipate the world of work changing in the next 10 years, and the implications of the research to Hong Kong. Participants are also welcomed to share your thoughts at the open forum session.

Before the public engagement period ends in October 2006, the Council for Sustainable Development and other partner organisations will also organise a number of district-based or sector-specific workshops and forums as platform to collect views from HK community on sustainable population policy. Please click here for the schedule of the upcoming events. Members of the public can also send their views directly to the Council for Sustainable Development or join the on-line discussion forum. Visit the Council's website www.susdev.org.hk for details.

Coming events:

• 13 October
  Population Policy Forum III: Working Women, Are You Tired? organised by The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce
• 24 & 26 October
  Seminar on Elderly Support organised by The Hong Kong Council of Social Service
• 26 October
  Enhancing Hong Kong’s Population Potential – From Business Perspective