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Social Enterprises
49. With the relentless and concerted efforts of Government and various sectors over the years, local social enterprises have attained solid growth. Their scope of services and target clients have become more diversified, earning wider recognition from the community. Apart from creating job opportunities, social enterprises also engage people from different sectors to serve the community. For instance, there are social enterprises renting domestic units to single-parent families with imminent housing need as co-tenants at below-market rates, offering barrier-free taxi services to wheelchair users, and operating restaurants to create jobs for women living in the same district.
50. Since the launch of the Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme (ESR Programme) in 2006, the Home Affairs Department has so far allocated a total of $180 million for the establishment of 161 social enterprises, which created 2 600 job opportunities. Eighty per cent of these social enterprises have become self-sustaining after the funding period.
51. I shall earmark $150 million to roll out a new phase of the ESR Programme from 2016-17 to 2019-20, under which enhancement measures will be implemented to benefit more types of social enterprises and encourage greater participation of the commercial sector in the development of social enterprises.
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