Good evening, distinguished guests.

It is my great honour and pleasure to welcome you here. We are truly grateful that you have joined us today, as we celebrate our twentieth anniversary of the Equal Opportunities Commission. Your presence not only underlines your support to the Commission, but it is also a testament to the importance of equal opportunities. 

Anniversaries are meant for celebrations and reflections. On this very special occasion, I would like to pay tribute to the pioneers and collaborators of the EOC – including our past Chairpersons, former and current Board Members, our colleagues, partners and stakeholders, as well as all of you – who have walked along this journey to equality with us in the past two decades. 

This is certainly a long and winding road that requires a lot of courage, tenacity and perseverance – to act in defiance against the traditional social paradigm, to instigate shifts in mindset and to remove entrenched practices and barriers. Yet with your support and collaboration, “Equal Opportunities” are increasingly gaining recognition and awareness in our community. It has now become part of the everyday language of the general public.

Looking ahead, we believe it is time to take the work of the EOC to the next level. We are convinced that equality in opportunities, along with our city’s openness, fairness, freedom and mutual respect, is fundamental to Hong Kong’s continuous development and success. For this reason, the EOC will continue our effort to uphold and mainstream equal opportunities in our society. We will facilitate greater and wider collaboration between the Government, enterprises and our community. We will push for stronger legal framework, and drive further progress in having equal opportunities embedded in the policies and agendas of organisations. We look forward to having you on this journey, as we head towards a fairer, better society in which we can all prosper, and everyone can enjoy true diversity, inclusion, respect and equality. 

And once again, thank you very much.