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Speech for Mrs Joanna CHOI, Deputy Postmaster General at "2005 International Letter-Writing Competition for Young People (Hong Kong Contest) "Award Presentation Ceremony

Mr CHAN, distinguished guests and friends from the media,

Welcome to the "2005 International Letter-Writing Competition for Young People (Hong Kong Contest)" Award Presentation Ceremony.

I am delighted to see so many young people present here. In commemoration of the bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen's birth this year, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) has organized the International Letter-Writing Competition with the theme of "A Letter to My Favourite Fairytale Character". Hongkong Post has also kicked off the Hong Kong Contest in support of the UPU. Special thanks are extended to the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) for its cordial support to the competition. We hope that through the competition, young people can experience the joy of letter communication and choose it as a way to express their love and care for others.

By immersing themselves in the boundless world of fairytale reading and letter-writing, students can stretch their creativity and imagination freely as well as enhancing their writing skills. This year's letter-writing competition presents a theme with a crossover of these two leisure activities, producing a special chemical effect that further inspires the students on writing. Such an experience will be useful to improving their writing skills in the future.

This year, we have received an overwhelming response from schools and their students. Over 500 primary and secondary schools, that is, nearly half of the schools in the territory, participated, with a record-breaking number of more than 9,300 pieces of entries pouring in. It is very encouraging to obtain such a favourable response, especially in times of the traditional hand-written letter communication being swamped by the tide of electronic communication.

The entries feature a variety of fairytale characters being chosen by the students as their recipients - ranging from the popular characters created by Andersen in The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid to the mythical favourites of the Chinese classics like the Monkey King Sun Wukong and the pig-human Zhu Bajie of Journey to the West. All the letters are vividly written and funny to read, I believe the students must have enjoyed letter-writing very much.

I hope that through the competition, our pillars of the future society will be encouraged to keep in touch with their faraway relatives by writing. HongkongPost will demonstrate the spirit of our Corporate Statement - "Linking People" by delivering letters to the recipients' hands, wherever they are, so that letter-writing can continue to thrive as a traditional and affectionate presentation of the art of communication, as well as giving our young friends a sense of pleasure.

Thank you.