Secretary for Home & Youth Affairs Alice Mak today visited a secondary school in Kwai Chung to share with teachers and students the Government’s work on improving district governance.

During the briefing session held on campus this morning, Miss Mak explained the objectives and guiding principles of the proposals on improving governance at the district level.

She emphasised that the new District Councils (DCs) will be formulated in four methods: by appointment, the District Committees constituency (DCC) election, the District Council geographical constituency (DCGC) election and ex-officio seats.

Miss Mak said that similar to the DCC election, the DCGC election requires candidates to be nominated by three members in each of the committees of the “three committees”, ie the Area Committees, the District Fight Crime Committees and the District Fire Safety Committees, in the relevant district.

In view of recent discussions on ways of making contact with DCC electors, Miss Mak stressed that the Government has considered the practical circumstances of prospective candidates in this election and made corresponding arrangements.

Any person who wishes to seek nomination from DCC electors may reach out to the District Offices to make a request to contact the relevant District Committee members.

She stated that the secretariats of the District Committees have been relaying the requests and have processed about 200 referrals since the end of September.

Miss Mak added that a performance monitoring mechanism for DC members was introduced in the proposals on improving governance at the district level.

She appealed to the teachers and family members of the students to cast their votes in the DC election to be held on December 10, so that the seventh-term District Council can assume office on January 1, 2024.

Miss Mak shared her experiences and encouraged the students to participate in community service in their spare time. Currently, there are two committees in each district, to which young people can nominate themselves as members to serve the community.