EXTRA MILE’s First Anniversary HKIA Promotes Creating Shared Value With Community

22 May 2019

Celebrations were held at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) to mark the first anniversary of the EXTRA MILE project, an innovative community investment project with a vision to creating and promoting shared value between the airport community and the wider community.

Launched by Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) in 2018, EXTRA MILE highlights collaborations among the AA, its business partners at HKIA, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and neighbouring communities. The project aims to develop and nurture talent, promote social mobility and contribute to the development of HKIA and the society. It comprises three programmes, namely “Working Holiday@Lantau”, “The Pioneer” and “EduCare”, which target working youth, non-Chinese speakers, and working parents at HKIA.

Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government; Fred Lam, Chief Executive Officer of the AA; and representatives of the three Community Partners officiated today’s event.

Speaking at the event, Mr Cheung commended EXTRA MILE for promoting “creating shared value” through innovative ideas and models, enabling enterprises, social entrepreneurs and social welfare organisations to partner with each other and join hands in promoting social and economic development at HKIA and its neighbouring communities in Lantau, as well as providing job opportunities and enhancing social mobility for different sectors in the community. Mr Cheung said the Government has set up the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund under the Commission on Poverty; and with the fund the Government is committed to promoting “creating shared value” by organising forums, site visits, workshops and steering courses so as to assist enterprises in formulating business plans for promoting shared value. He encouraged more enterprises to take part in promoting the concept of “creating shared value”, bringing benefits to the community while developing the economy and creating business value.

Mr Lam said, “Today we are happy to see the first and second year participants of EXTRA MILE joining us to celebrate the first anniversary of the project and witness the beginning of the second year. We believe people from different background will be able to benefit from the career prospects and support provided at the airport. We are committed to continuing to expand the programme to enable more airport business partners and members of the community to benefit from the shared value we create together with all our partners.”

EXTRA MILE has made encouraging progress with staunch support from the airport’s business partners. During the year, the number of participating Strategic Partners of EXTRA MILE increased from 15 to 24, offering a wide range of job opportunities including roles in inflight and ground handling, aircraft maintenance, aviation security, catering, customer service, hotel and logistics services.

Under the Working Holiday@Lantau and The Pioneer programmes, 60 local youngsters and non-Chinese speakers were matched with jobs at HKIA. Off-the-job support like volunteer activities for young participants and personal training courses for non-Chinese speakers are also provided to assist their career and personal development. EduCare provides after-school care to around 100 primary school students whose parents are working at the airport. Parenting workshops on different topics are also held for EduCare participants.

The 24 business partners participating in EXTRA MILE are: