ENG-2009 — Page 507

History | 427

Hong Kong's public housing programme started with an emergency measure to rehouse some 53 000 people made homeless overnight in a squatter fire on Christmas Day 1953. It has since developed into a programme that encompasses a wide range of rental and home ownership flats with facilities.

The main aim of the Government's subsidised housing policy is to meet the housing needs of low-income families who cannot afford private rental accommodation. The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) develops and implements a public housing programme which seeks to achieve the government's subsidised housing policy goal. The HA's primary role is to help families in need to acquire affordable public rental housing and to keep the average waiting time for general applicants (except for non-elderly one-person applicants) to about three years.

The Government has been investing heavily in education to enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness in a knowledge-based and globalised economy. Free primary and junior secondary education has been provided to every student attending public sector schools since 1978. Senior secondary education and full-time courses offered by the Vocational Training Council for secondary three school leavers also became free in September 2008. Tertiary education remains heavily subsidised. It is the Government's policy that no student is deprived of education for lack of financial

means.

The Government and non-governmental organisations have made major strides in improving social welfare services to the public in the past decade which in turn have increased government spending on social welfare from $27.2 billion in 1999- 2000 to an estimated $41.6 billion in 2009-10. Social services are today provided not only for emergency relief, but for other needs as well.

The post-war years also saw the development of a healthcare system to cope with Hong Kong's rapidly growing population, caused mostly by a huge influx of refugees from China. Big steps were taken to combat communicable diseases in the early post-war years and to build additional hospitals, as well as general out-patient clinics, some of which were run by voluntary agencies. The Government continued to expand the healthcare infrastructure during the 1950s and 1960s to cater to the needs of the ever growing population.

The Government's commitment to safeguarding public health and to providing medical care and facilities for everyone in Hong Kong, particularly those relying on subsidised medical services, was first articulated in policy papers published in 1964 and 1974. The goals, which included subsidising more healthcare agencies, were largely achieved. The Government's healthcare policy has since aimed to 'ensure that no one should be denied adequate medical treatment because of lack of means'.

The Government took another major step to reorganise the then Medical and Health Department and set up the Hospital Authority (HA) in 1990. The HA is responsible for managing public hospitals and providing a range of heavily subsidised medical services to uphold the Government's policy of ensuring that no one is denied medical care due to lack of means. At the same time, the Department of Health (DH) maintains and promotes good health and prevent diseases from taking