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Ethnic Minorities
140.
Though a predominantly Chinese society, Hong Kong has quite a number of ethnic minorities who are valued members of our community. Many have attained outstanding achievements in their professions and have made significant contributions to Hong Kong’s economic growth and social development.
141.
Some members of ethnic minorities, however, are disadvantaged because of their education level, language barriers, lack of social networks, and other causes. In view of this, I propose:
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(a) |
Granting a recurrent annual allowance of $300,000, starting from the 2008-09 school year, to 19 designated primary and secondary schools to help them implement the School-based Support Scheme for non-Chinese speaking students, and to suitably increase the allowance granted to such “designated schools” with a higher intake of non-Chinese speaking students. We will also seek to increase the number of these schools to 25 within two school years. It is estimated that full implementation of these proposals will entail an additional provision of
$13 million a year. |
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(b) |
Setting up, on a trial basis, four support service centres
in different districts to provide interpretation services for ethnic minorities using health care services, job centres and social welfare facilities. Chinese and English language courses and other activities will also be organised to help them integrate into the community. I will earmark $16 million as the operating expenses of these centres for the coming year and allocate an additional $8 million to subsidise their start-up cost. |
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