Color your own Robots partner list

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

HKFYG Summer Tribal Art Camp Partner list

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

Symposium for HKCEE stduents event partner list

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

SSYP partner list

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.

 
 
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.

 

Mr Michael Yip

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,
  Industry & Technology
  www.hksspc.gov.hk

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
  Mr Andrew Fiddaman, Youth Business International
 

www.u21.org.hk/ybhk

Youth Career Expo

Wednesday-Thursday 13-14 July 2005 at Plaza Hollywood Diamond Hill
Guests of Honour: The Hon. Jeffrey Lam, SBS, JP,
  Member, Legislative Council, HKSAR
  Mr Tsang Kin Woo, JP
  Assistant Commissioner, (Employment Services),
  Labour Department, HKSAR
  www.yen.org.hk/expo/detail.htm


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.

 

Steve Ng, Founder of the Toy East International

Steve Ng  and his toys at the LiveWIRE award ceremony

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."

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.

 

 

 

Unhappy Family

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

 

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.

 

 

 

Poverty in South East Asia

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

 

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.

 

 

 

Job Seekers

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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