Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation
Key event of the Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025, Ministerial Panel, has been held this afternoon (April 22). Participating cultural ministers and senior officials from 17 countries joined the Panel. They exchanged views and shared experience on policies and measures to promote arts and cultural development. Organised in Hong Kong, the Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 further strengthens Hong Kong's position as an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.
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Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
The theme of the Forum is "Connect, Create, Engage: Bridging Cultures for All". Officiating at the Panel opening today, the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Miss Rosanna Law, highlighted that the world has undergone rapid and vigourous changes and technological advancement is something inevitable. A people-oriented approachshould be adoptedto promote the arts and cultural development, i.e. to connect more with people, to create more for people and to engage more people. Making good use of Hong Kong as an East meets-West centre for international cultural exchange and the largest art trading centre in Asia, Hong Kong will surely continue to work hard to make our name card more shiny and tell good stories of Hong Kong.
In addition to the speeches given by Miss Law and Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mr Gao Zheng in the Panel, participating cultural ministers and senior officials from Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Korea, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam also took turns to speak.
The Acting Chief Executive, Mr Chan Kwok-ki, hosted the gala dinner for the delegations as well as local cultural leaders. Local musicians, all-inclusive orchestra and a cappella choir were invited by the forum to perform in the dinner, showcasing a blend of Chinese and Western traditional and contemporary music, demonstrating to the guests the diversified and vibrant of art and culture scene in Hong Kong.
In his speech at the dinner, Mr Chan pointed out that the Government has been actively fostering the city's development into an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange with the clear national support in the National 14th Five-Year Plan. With its unique advantage of blending Chinese and Western cultures and its extensive international connections, Hong Kong will become a "super connector" and "super value-adder" between the Mainland and the rest of the world.
The delegations attending the forum visited the Hong Kong Museum of Art and Oil Street Art Space (Oi!) yesterday (April 21). They will attend the plenary session and visit the Hong Kong Palace Museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District tomorrow (April 23).
The Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum has been held since 2003 with the aim of promoting cultural co-operation and exchanges among regions. Drawing on the success of past forums, this year's forum is themed "Connect, Create, Engage: Bridging Cultures for All" and has expanded its scale. In addition to inviting more Asian countries to participate, Belt and Road countries outside of Asia are invited to participate for the first time to further promote cultural exchanges with countries in the region.
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum+ 2025 promotes cultural co-operation Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Follow-up action taken by DH on suspected closure of private healthcare facilities
The Department of Health (DH) said today (May 2) that it was very concerned about the suspected closure of certain private healthcare facilities and was working with the relevant law enforcement departments through an inter-departmental task force to actively follow up on the incident. In addition, the DH will provide vaccination service to children affected by the incident in accordance with the established arrangements under the Hong Kong Childhood Immunisation Programme (HKCIP), which is free for eligible children.
Vaccination service for children affected by the incident
All 29 Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) under the DH provide vaccination service for infants and young children from birth to five years of age under the HKCIP. The Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases under the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the DH holds regular meetings and gives science-based advice and recommendations to the CHP regarding the types of vaccines to be incorporated into the HKCIP from the public health perspective in a timely manner. Currently, the DH provides free vaccination services for eligible children under the HKCIP for the prevention of 12 communicable diseases with public health significance, namely tuberculosis, hepatitis B, poliomyelitis, tetanus, pertussis, measles, diphtheria, mumps, rubella, varicella, pneumococcal infection, and human papillomavirus infection. For other vaccines that are not included in the HKCIP due to scientific evidence, parents can consult their family doctors and consider to arrange vaccination for their children according to their personal needs.
On average, over 90 per cent of locally born babies visit MCHCs for Child Health Services including immunisation every year. For children affected by the incident and have been registered with one of the MCHCs, their parents may make an appointment by calling the registered MCHCs (see Annex) to consult the healthcare staff at the MCHCs on the vaccinations that their children need to receive in the future. For a small number of children who have not been registered with the MCHCs, parents may call the hotline (2125 1188), which will operate from tomorrow (May 3) from 9am to 5pm daily until further notice. Parents can also send emails to dhhelpdesk_2501@dh.gov.hk or WhatsApp messages to 6170 8006 respectively for enquiries. Information on the services and booking procedures of the MCHCs is available at www.fhs.gov.hk.
Even if a child has received some of the vaccinations in private hospitals or clinics, healthcare professionals at the MCHCs can verify and assess the remaining vaccinations that a child needs to receive according to the recommendations of the HKCIP through the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS) or the hardcopy of immunisation records provided by the parents and arrange for the remaining vaccinations for the child in a timely manner to safeguard his/her health.
Other follow-up actions on suspected closure of private healthcare facilities
Under the existing legislation regulating the healthcare professions, vaccines are required to be prescribed by registered medical practitioners. The conduct of the registered medicalpractitioners is regulated by the Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK) and the laws governing the conduct of the relevant professions. If any registered medical practitioner is suspected to have breached professional conduct in this incident, the DH will refer the case to the MCHK for necessary follow-up action. As for business arrangements involving the provision of healthcare services which are outside the scope of professional conduct (e.g. commercial marketing and charging etc) and are regulated by other relevant legislations. The Government has set up an inter-departmental task force to follow up on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Government will temporarily remove the name of the private healthcare facilities from the Primary Care Directory, the Vaccination Subsidy Scheme and the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme.