The government should take the lead in creating a family-friendly working environment to encourage domestic harmony, members of an advisory committee of Hong Kong said yesterday.

 

For many social problems can be effectively dealt with only if there is harmony in the family and domestic problems are handled properly, the Committee on Social Development and Quality of Life under the Commission on Strategic Development said at its fifth meeting yesterday.

 

Chaired by Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen, who deputed for Chief Secretary for Administration Rafael Hui, the meeting discussed various support measures for families.

 

Summarizing the views after the meeting, head of the Central Policy Unit Professor Lau Siu-kai said many new family problems had cropped up in recent years, such as alienation, abuse of spouse and children, lack of proper care for children and the elderly separation of family members in Hong Kong and the mainland.

 

"These are very big problems for families living in poverty," he said. "Middle-class families too face similar problems because husbands and wives both have to work, leaving very little time for the family.

 

"Besides, people's working hours are usually very long and are under tremendous pressure, while more and more women are going out to find jobs."

 

On the government's role, Lau said committee members had agreed that the five-day week scheme proposed by the chief executive was a good start to cultivate a harmonious family life.

 

The government should work with civilian and religious organizations to promote the correct notions about family ethics, they said.

 

However, the committee members also felt that the government should not hard-sell or get deeply involved in individual family affairs, except for high-risk and poor families' cases.

 

Lau said: "Some members suggested that the government take the lead in encouraging large enterprises to promote family-friendly working environment and employment conditions."

 

That will allow more women to work even if they had plans to raise a family, he said.

 

(China Daily September 21, 2006)