29 -
maintain
their real purchasing power shows the commitment we
have made to providing comprehensive assistance for those in
need of financial help, care
place a safety-net for the needy and the vulnerable.
ох protection. We have in
54.
But,
once again, we cannot be
satisfied
with
achieving simply a level of basic provision. Hong Kong is a
dynamic and constantly developing society.
means that jobs and
virtually everyone.
Full employment
to
reasonable wages are available
But changing life styles and social
habits, changes in the population structure and new
pressures on traditional institutions like the family
create, inevitably, new tensions and strains. And some
individuals and families cannot cope without outside
support. Our existing social services already take care of
the basic needs of these people. Increasingly, they now
tend to require professional guidance rather than financial
help
a significant break with the past in the welfare
The challenge for Hong Kong is to improve our social
services without creating the sort of dependency culture
field.
found in some Western welfare states.
55.
Last year, I said that the time had come to take
progress we have made in our welfare services
stock of the
/since