Youth Summit 2012

The Home Affairs Bureau and the Commission on Youth (COY) organised "Youth Summit 2012" on 24 November 2012 at Youth Square. The Summit provides a platform for the youth to exchange views with the Government officials and guests on the topics of their concern.

The theme of this year's summit was "Voices of the Youth - Our Ideal...", under which were four sub-themes selected through online voting, namely "Our Ideal Career", "Our Ideal Home", "Our Ideal Education" and "Our Ideal Caring Community".

Government Principal Officials, namely the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing; the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung; the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim; the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung; the Secretary for Development, Mr Paul Chan; and community celebrities also attended the Summit. They listened to the presentations of youth representatives on the four discussion sub-themes, had an exchange session with the young people and answered to participants’ and online questions.

The Chief Executive also attended the Summit at that afternoon to exchange views with participants on youth development policy and other topics of their concern. The young people were eager to express their views and opinions. The Chief Executive also responded to questions raised by the participants and submitted online.

Youth participants aged 15 to 24 were recruited through the Commission on Youth's website and the 18 District Offices of the Home Affairs Department from mid-September to early October. All young people who enrolled as participants for Youth Summit 2012 had attended a pre-summit workshop on 3 November. At the workshop, youth participants could have preliminary discussion and understanding on the sub-themes. It gave participants to get to know each other. Through the communication and report writing training, they could be better to prepare for the presentations given in the Summit. After attending the workshop, the participants continued to further explore the topics in groups in the following two weeks to get ready for the Summit.

Youth Ambassadors were recruited to assist in preparatory work of the Summit. As leader in Youth Summit 2012, the Youth Ambassadors were responsible for facilitating and helping other participants to engage in and complete the activities of the Summit. The aim was to facilitate comprehensive and in-depth discussions on every topic among participants, as well as ensuring sufficient expression of their views to the Government and stakeholders.

The Government will continue to organise activities such as Youth Exchange Sessions to let young people have direct exchange with government representatives on issues of concern to the youth.

Youth Summit 2012 on 24 November

Pre-Summit Workshop on 3 November

Youth Ambassadors (Chinese version only)

Delegates from the Mainland and Macao to attend the Youth Summit 2012 from 21 to 25 November (Chinese version only)