Asia+ Festival 2024 Celebrates Cultural Diversity with Over 100 Performances from Nearly 30 Countries.

Speech by SCST at ceremony of Asia+ Festival 2024 cum Asian Ethnic Cultural Performances 2024

​Following is the speech by the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr Kevin Yeung, at the ceremony of Asia+ Festival 2024 cum Asian Ethnic Cultural Performances 2024 today (November 10):

Dear Consuls-General, representatives of overseas cultural organisations, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon.

Welcome to the Asia+ Festival 2024. It gives me great pleasure to address you at the second edition of Asia+ Festival, and welcome you to today's carnival that showcases the charm of different cultures in Asia and beyond.

Inaugurated last year, Asia+ Festival is a new platform for cultural and artistic exchange that celebrates the cultural diversity of Asia, the Middle East and Belt and Road regions. We are honoured to see the recognition of the Festival as one of the items in the list of "People's Livelihood and People-to-people Connectivity Projects" in the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi in 2013, has opened up a new path for international exchanges and co-operation. Thanks to the unique "one country, two systems" principle, Hong Kong enjoys unparalleled connectivity with both the Mainland and the rest of the world, and is actively developing into an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange under the National 14th Five-Year Plan.

The Asia+ Festival aims to establish itself as an international cultural brand that contributes to cultural bonding and integration between countries and regions. To achieve this goal, the Asia+ Festival goes one step further this year, featuring distinguished artists from nearly 30 countries across Asia, the Belt and Road regions and beyond, and offering more than 100 performances and activities. The number of participating countries and programmes has significantly increased compared with last year, with a projected attendance of over 100000. The second edition also extends its reach to new venues and introduces more outreach activities to engage local communities more extensively.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you, Consuls-General and representatives of overseas cultural organisations in Hong Kong, for your support for this Festival and the fascinating programmes you have contributed. I wish the Festival a great success and all of you a delightful afternoon. Thank you.

Meeting attendance of members of District Councils in 2024

The Home Affairs Department (HAD) made the following clarifications today (January 2) regarding certain media reports on the meeting attendance of the current-term members of the District Councils (DCs) in 2024:

(1) The current-term DC members were diligent in their work, with over 98 per cent of 470 members having attended all DC meetings or were only absent with the DC's consent; over 90 per cent having attended all committee/working group meetings or were only absent with the DC's consent. Aside from attending DC meetings, each DC member on average attended 28 committee/working group meetings;

(2) all DC members fulfilled the requirement under the Performance Monitoring Guidelines for Members of the DCs (the Guidelines), i.e. attendance rate of not lower than 80 per cent and no DC members were in violation of the requirement; certain reports were incorrect in stating that some DC members were in violation of the Guidelines due to their absence at meetings since absence at an individual meeting was not a violation in itself; and

(3) for the purpose of calculating attendance, the Guidelines stipulate certain reasons for absence that would be consented by the DCs, including sickness and attendance at another meeting or an activity on behalf of the DCs etc. If a DC member were absent from meetings due to the aforementioned reasons with the DC's consent, the absence would not affect his/her attendance rate. If a DC member were absent from meetings due to other reasons (i.e. personal matters), the absence would be counted towards his/her attendance rate.

​The HAD hoped that media outlets and members of the public would have an accurate understanding of DC members' attendance situation at meetings. The current-term DC members' attendance rate at meetings was the highest amongst all previous terms, which fully demonstrated DC members' efforts and work in improving governance at the district level.