Bright Stars

Hong Kong's development depends on our people. As the younger generations are our future, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has all along laid great emphasis on nurturing our youth.

Hong Kong has never been short of talented people. Today at Government House, we welcomed a group of primary students awarded the "Star Bright" scholarships.

The "Star Bright" Scholarship Scheme, which has been organised by the Gifted Education Foundation for the past three years, awards scholarships to senior primary students in Hong Kong who come from families of limited means but have outstanding performance and potential in mathematics and science, arts, sports and other areas. The Scheme also organises various kinds of activities, including visits and performances, to broaden the horizons of students.

There is no success without sweat. The scholarship recipients have spent a lot of time and effort to achieve outstanding performance. I arranged the gathering today to show my support for these students and encourage them to keep up their efforts.

A focus of this year's Policy Address is to foster a culture of multifaceted excellence and help nurture young people through education, employment and whole-person development so that young people with different abilities and goals can all realise their full potential. To this end, I announced a number of initiatives in the Policy Address to help students in need. These include incorporating three Community Care Fund learning support programmes into the Government's regular assistance programme from the 2014/15 school year, which will benefit about 270 000 eligible students; earmarking another $200 million on top of the original funding of $200 million for the Partnership Fund for the Disadvantaged to be provided on a matching fund basis and dedicated to launching more after-school learning and support programmes for primary and secondary students from grass-roots families; and earmarking $300 million in this financial year for the Child Development Fund to ensure its sustainability and help more students from needy families.

We are obliged to do our best to create more opportunities for upward mobility for the next generation so that all young people in Hong Kong can unleash their potential and become bright stars.

May 29, 2014