Hong Kong lawmakers urge better childcare, elder abuse laws in five-year plan debate
Hong Kong lawmakers debated the city's first five-year plan and policy address, focusing on improving welfare. Suggestions included better childcare services, a new 'failure to protect' offence covering elders, and economic transformation for the Northern District.
The Legislative Council on 9 October held its third day of a joint debate on Hong Kong's first five-year plan and policy address. The fifth session discussed 'effectively improving people's livelihoods and perfecting the social security system'.
Lawmaker Chan Man-ki, representing the Election Committee sector, said she had long pushed for better citywide childcare services. She welcomed the government's plan to set up independent child care centres and after-school care programmes in schools. Chan said increasing the number of places was important, but supply must precisely match demand. She suggested using data from the ongoing population census to improve the location of service points, placing them near workplaces and public transport interchanges to help working parents.
Chan also said even one case of child abuse was too many, and the risk of elder abuse could not be ignored. She urged the government to study as soon as possible the introduction of a 'failure to protect' offence covering both the young and the elderly, bringing seniors under the scope of protection. She also called for a similar mandatory reporting mechanism for cases involving elders.
Lawmaker Yiu Ming, representing the New Territories North constituency, focused on economic development, particularly in the Northern District. He noted that areas such as Sheung Shui had long been dominated by shops and pharmacies serving parallel goods traders. Yiu said as cross-border consumption patterns changed, pharmacies were gradually closing. Residents of the Northern District welcomed this, he said, as it allowed the community to shed its former crowded and chaotic image and restore a proper neighbourhood feel, with more shops serving local residents. However, Yiu said the Northern District's economy needed to transform as the Northern Metropolis developed.
Yiu suggested the government take the lead in making use of vacant shops to attract more local food and beverage outlets, creative industries or weekend speciality markets. This, he said, could transform the former parallel-goods streets into lively pedestrian zones. He said this would not only benefit local residents but also attract people from other districts to visit and spend money, boosting the area's economy.