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Color your
own Robots
20th
Century Fox generously donated 200 tickets to the
Federation for a showing of the movie, Robots,on 3
July. The tickets went to pupils at the Federation's primary
school and day nurseries. Children can also take part in a
Robot-Painting Competition, co-organized by the Federation
and 20th Century Fox, together with support
from DoubleA and
MingPao. They will be given free paint pens
and colouring sheets for colouring in a selection of robots.
Winners of the competition
will receive fine gift bags from DoubleA. Deadline 15 July.
The film Robots comes from the makers of Ice Age and presents
a fantasy world full of surprises in which a young genius,
Rodney, puts great effort into creating robots capable of making
the world a better place. We invite children to join in the
competition and make use of their own creativity. More tickets
for the preview of the movie will also be given away.
Click
below for more info:
:www.u21.org.hk/main/promotion/robot
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HKFYG
Summer Tribal Art Camp
The
2-day HKFYG Summer Tribal Art Camp is being co-organized
by the Federation and the Hong Kong
Youth Arts Festival on 19-20 August at the HKFYG Jockey
Club Sai Kung Outdoor Training Camp. Eighty school children
in Primary 6 to Secondary 3 are expected to take part in
what promises to be a highly creative event. The Art Camp
will provide an opportunity for young people to practise
performing arts such as African Drumming, Creative Movement,
Tribal Dance and Percussion. There will also be backstage
activities such as Face Painting and Costume Making as
well as a Tribal Gathering and BBQ feast. The Federation
and the Hong Kong Youth Arts Festival very much hope that
participation in the Art Camp will give young people valuable
interpersonal and team-work skills as well as building
up their self-esteem.
Click
to read more:
www.u21.org.hk/main/promotion/dance3
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Symposium
for HKCEE students
On
Wednesday 27 July, the Federation and the Vocational
Training Council are co-organizing a Symposium
entitled 「知.專.升學路」研討會暨放榜工作坊, at the Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition
Centre. We are very happy to say that Mr. Shih Wing Ching,
Chairman of the Centaline Group and Mr. Wong Hak-lim,
Vice-Principal, Buddhist Ho Nam Kam College will be our
guest speakers at the Symposium. They will talk to 2005
Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examinations (HKCEE)
students about keys to success and the ways in which
they can equip themselves for further studies or jobs
and the alternatives for low achievers. Workshops for
F.5 students on planning ahead of the release of the
HKCEE results, IVE/ SBI subject selection strategies
and interview skills for F.6 admission will also be provided.
The activities are free of charge and we welcome all
this year's HKCEE students and their parents to join
us. If you have queries please call 2788-3433. For enrollment
click here:
http://www.vtc.edu.hk/symposium
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Summer
Youth Programme: thanks to donors
The
Federation is indebted to Sino United Publishing
Holdings for tickets to the forthcoming 2005 Book Fair and
to Four Seas Mercantile Holdings Limited for donating snacks
and drinks for participants at the Kick-off for the Summer
Youth Programme on 3 July 2005 in Central. We would also
like to thank Mrs. Pamela Tan, Director of Home Affairs and
Mr. Bunny Chan Chung-bun, Chairman of the Summer Youth Programme
2005 Committee, for being Officiating Guests that day. Please
get in touch with Ms. Elaine Chan at 2123-9598 to learn more
about upcoming events and programmes.
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News
and Views
Youth
Business Hong Kong — Another Choice.Another Opportunity
According to Youth Business International (YBI ), at least 300
million young people aged 18-30 around the world are unemployed or underemployed.
In the UK the Prince's Trust mobilized the business community to help
start-ups, then YBI adopted this model with over 70,000 young
people in over 26 countries - many from disadvantaged backgrounds. Building
on the YBI model, the Federation has initiated Youth
Business Hong Kong (YBHK) which will provide entrepreneurship
training, personal coaching, and financial assistance.
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YBHK will
give business mentoring for young people with viable business
ideas but without backing. We believe that this support will
enhance self-esteem, employability and economic independence
of young people with the vision and talent to be entrepreneurs.
Hong Kong was ranked 32nd out of 35 economies in an entrepreneurism
survey this year. The same survey ranked Shenzen 10th, just ahead
of the US. What is it that makes a start-up business into a runaway
success? Increased diversity and competitiveness is the answer.
This week's Lead Story is an account of one such dream come true.
"I
would like to help young people in Hong Kong who work hard
and have ideas for new ventures. Sometimes all they need
is the right kind of encouragement and financial support.
I am convinced that Youth Business Hong Kong will
see the younger generation maintaining our enviable tradition
of successful entrepreneurship."
Mr
Michael Yip
Chairman, Ocean Grand Holdings Limited
What's
happening |
Award
Presentation : Hong Kong Student Science Project Competition
Saturday
9 July 2005, 11:30 am at Hong Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre |
Officiating
Guest: |
Mr.
John Tsang Chun-wah, JP, Secretary for Commerce, |
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Industry & Technology |
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www.hksspc.gov.hk |
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Launching
: Youth Business Hong Kong
Tuesday
12 July 2005, 3.00pm at Hong Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre |
Guest
of Honour : The Hon. Henry Tang,
GBS JP, Financial Secretary, HKSAR |
Special
Guests: |
Ms
Gu Li-ping, Youth Business China |
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Mr
Andrew Fiddaman, Youth Business International |
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www.u21.org.hk/ybhk
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Youth
Career Expo
Wednesday-Thursday
13-14 July 2005 at Plaza Hollywood Diamond Hill |
Guests
of Honour: |
The
Hon. Jeffrey Lam, SBS, JP, |
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Member,
Legislative Council, HKSAR |
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Mr
Tsang Kin Woo, JP |
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Assistant
Commissioner, (Employment Services), |
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Labour
Department, HKSAR |
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www.yen.org.hk/expo/detail.htm |
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Lead
Story
Entrepreneurial
passion and hard work
Being an entrepreneur requires innovative thinking to identify a business opportunity
and the determination and passion to follow through with the idea. The follow-up
process requires hard work if success is to last and any business enterprise
requires adequate cash flow and market research. These principles are widely
recognized and they underpin the Federation's new Youth Business Hong Kong programme.
We talked to Steve Ng,
winner of a LiveWIRE Business Award, a scheme which preceded
Youth Business Hong Kong and is co-organised
by HKFYG & Shell Hong Kong. Steve is the founder of Toy
East International, a very successful start-up online retail and wholesale
business dealing in toys. |
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Steve
was just 20 years old when he started running a business in 1998.
E-bay, the online auction site gave him the idea. He realized
that the very act of bidding online would give him a grasp of
the international market for any item. In this way he could short-cut
the market research aspect of his start-up:
"You
don't need much to get going - a photo, a few words describing
your
product and an arrangement with the bank will get you started.
You can avoid the start-up costs normally involved in establishing
a traditional physical inventory. If your customers use credit
cards for payment it makes things so simple."
He also realized that online bidding in itself could be a profitable
enough process for him to make a living out of it. He made HK$4000
to $6000 a month just buying and selling on the Internet from home
over the first few years when he needed finance for his website
design courses:
"Website
design is very important and it's expensive to hire a designer.
Luckily for me I realized after graduating
that my
dream
is to be a website designer. But it's more than just a dream and
a passion -it's a practical solution."
What were Steve's
problems?
"The first problem is finding suitable goods for sale. In e-commerce
you need a good network of connections just as in any other business.
It took some time to convince Hong Kong people that e-commerce
and e-trading would be good for their products. I had to be very
persistent to overcome this prejudice and resistance to change.
That was especially true after the IT bubble burst."
In fact, Steve
actually set up Toy East with only HK$2,000-3,000 which is about
as low a start-up cost as anyone could imagine. However, he knows
that financial backing is crucial to a start-up and is very positive
about the new Youth Business Hong Kong project that is about
to be launched by the Federation:
"It will
provide them with resources and encouragement – two vital
factors in
any new venture."
He says that hard work has been at the core of his success. As
for mentors, yes he had two, who taught him about online trading
but:
"In the
end you have to explore and be prepared to take risks on your
own. I was also
very lucky - my friends helped me throughout,
as did the Federation's LiveWIRE programme. Many people in my
social network have given me unconditional support which has
been invaluable."
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Facts & Figures
Hong Kong fathers:
cold, distant and strict
Between March
and April this year, a local magazine <性情文化>interviewed
1,739 F.1 to F.5 secondary school students about their relationship
with their parents*. It found that 82% of them have had a row
with their parents and 11% of them even argue with their parents
every day, mainly about their academic results, playing video
games and hanging out with friends. A later survey of parents
by children, done by Reader's Digest, reports that the average
parent in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan rates a mere C+, although
mothers did better than fathers, getting B+. Hong Kong parents
got good grades for hard work, unconditional love and a secure,
happy home life. They did much worse for explaining sex, helping
with homework and fashion sense.
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Nearly
50% of the young people interviewed for the first survey thought
their parents should be thrifty so
that they could have more pocket money. 67% of them indicated that
the amount of pocket money they get from their parents is $500
or above per month and 49% of them hoped to have pocket money ranging
from $300 to $1,000. Maybe they get this mercenary attitude from
their fathers. Another survey** by Hong Kong's Democratic Alliance
for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong reported that 45%
of local fathers thought that financial security was more important
than love in their relationship with their children. Perhaps it
is not surprising that the Reader's Digest respondents described
fathers as "cold, distant and strict."***
The Federation
promotes harmonious family relationships with various programmes.
One is the Internet-based "Parent Project" for online exchange
between parents. The "Form 1 Project" helps parents support children
through the crucial transition to secondary school. Contact:
Family Life Education, Tel: 2557-1308 for details.
*SingPao 23 May 2005
**Shenzen Daily 20 June 2005
***The Standard 29 June 2005
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War or poverty
At the G8 summit
in Scotland this week world leaders are discussing how to help
the world's poor. The summit takes place in a world
where the most powerful nations spend extraordinary sums on weapons.
The total in 2004 was over US$1 trillion. The US alone spent US$455
billion on munitions in 2004. Its total on foreign aid during that
period was 4.1% of this amount. President Bush has proposed to
double the aid to Africa over the next 5 years but that increase
is equivalent to a mere 2 days' spending on the military.
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Finance
ministers of the world's richest countries have agreed to cancel
debts amounting to US$40 billion owed to the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank
by 18 of the world's poorest countries. However, the debt of
another 62 countries needs to be cancelled as well if the United
Nations' Millennium Development Goals of reducing the poverty,
hunger and disease among billions of people by 2015 are to be
reached. Even then, debt relief alone cannot solve the problem
because it does not differentiate between good and bad spending.
Inequality in wealth and resources is ubiquitous, both between
nations and within them but the income gap within our own society
is one of the highest in East Asia. In China, statistics released
last month* show that the gap is widening, just as it is in Hong
Kong. The richest 10% on the Mainland have disposable incomes 12
times the size of the poorest. This reflects the economic development
gap between urban and rural regions and a social gap where the
income of the lowest 10% of earners is a mere 755 yuan a year.
In Hong Kong, the poorest 10% of households account for 1% of the
overall income and are on under $4000 per month, whereas the top
10% of income earners take home 41.2% of the total.** This situation
makes the work of the Federation in empowering young people to
escape the poverty trap an essential part of the attempt to bridge
the gap between rich and poor on our own doorstep.
*National Bureau of Statistics survey reported in the South China
Morning Post 19 June 2005
**Frank Ching South China Morning Post 26 October 2004
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Optimism
for job seekers
A graduate
job fair last month showed clear signs of Hong Kong's economic
recovery. Vacancies advertised at the fair
in the Central Library were up 130% on last year with starting
salaries up 10-14%, from HK$8,000 to $11,000 and with 70%
of the positions not requiring previous experience in a relevant
field*. However, the latest government statistics, released
on 28 June, showed an average overall nominal increase of
just 0.7% compared with the figure for a year ago and this
was the first year-on-year increase since December 2001 when
there was a tiny rise of 0.2%. Figures from The Federation's
own Job Expo this month will be another indicator of trends.
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A
Chinese University quality of life survey** has reflected
the general public's satisfaction
with an improving economy and decreasing unemployment. However,
despite the tentative optimism, employment agencies commented
that the higher salaries on offer reflected employers' difficulty
in filling positions rather than a bullish attitude to business
growth. A flattening out of the trend is expected in the
next six months. Furthermore, what salary increases mean
in real terms depends on the current purchasing power of
the HK$ which is related to consumer prices, also on the
increase.
*South China Morning Post 23 June 2005 A4
**South China Morning Post 29 June 2005 C1
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