Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you all for joining us at the Equal Opportunities Commission Forum this afternoon. This is the fourth year the Commission is organising this public event – to hear stakeholders’ feedback on the work of the EOC, and to exchange views on issues related to equality and discrimination.

We value a lot the feedback of our stakeholders, as it is only with their support and collaboration, as well as the collective effort of different sectors and communities that we can fight discrimination, and build a truly inclusive society. We welcome all of you, and those representing the government, NGOs, stakeholders, service-providers, particularly a large number of friends from the Consular Community.

This year, we have chosen the educational and employment challenges of ethnic minorities as the special theme of the Forum. This afternoon, on top of reporting the EOC’s performance and major work areas, we have invited representatives from both public and private sectors to share with us the strategies and measures to address these challenges. Indeed, the EOC attaches great importance to the equal educational and employment opportunities of our ethnic minorities. We have made the subject matter one of our priority work areas, and established a dedicated unit to work on it. We are convinced that whatever our racial background or ethnic origin, we are all part of Hong Kong. We all deserve respect, dignity and equal opportunities to lead meaningful lives, to thrive and succeed in this city we call home.

Once again, thank you for joining us. I look forward to hearing your views and suggestions this afternoon. In order to save time, I shall continue my presentation of the work of EOC in Chinese.