43. In addition, the Hong Kong Vocational Training Council operates eight technical institutes with 62,000 full-time and part-time places at both craft and technician levels. It also runs 16 industrial training centres with 20,000 places to train workers
in various industries.
44. In the social welfare field, a non contributory social security system provides financial assistance sufficient to bring the income. of needy individuals and families up to a prescribed level. Additional non means-tested allowances are paid to the disabled and the elderly. There is also a wide range of services including old people's homes, hostels for the homeless and rehabilitation services for the disabled, including the provision of employment opportunities in sheltered workshops.
45. In recent years there has been significant improvement in facilities for culture and recreation in Hong Kong. The territory now boasts a symphony orchestra and ballet company of international standing, both subvented from public funds. An Academy for Performing Arts provides training in drama, music and dance and indigenous performing groups are supported by the Municipal Councils. There is a network of high quality performing venues in all the main centres of population. When the biggest of these, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, opens at the end of this year the territory will have more than 21,000 seats available in its theatres and concert halls, more than five times as many as in 1978.
SUMMARY
46. Hong Kong is a tiny, crowded territory with virtually no natural resources except its harbour. Its population has increased
tenfold in the past 40 years. It lives by trade and is very vulnerable to fluctuations in the international economy. For
decades its political future was uncertain. Yet Hong Kong has become the 10th largest trading entity in the world, and a major
commercial, manufacturing and financial centre.
It is the gateway
to China and a natural centre for the emerging Asia-Pacific region.
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