Social Enterprise Business Centre (SEBC) compiles the Social Enterprise Directory (SE Directory) every year. As of April of 2022, there were 711 social enterprise (SE) units, reflecting a 7.9% increase from the previous year. These SE units were run by 368 organisations. 147 (39.9%) of them are charitable organisation (i.e. exempt from tax under section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance), while 221 (60.1%) are not.

Regarding SE industrial distribution of SE units*, the first three categories that account for the most in total are Education and Training (a total of 185 SE/ SE projects), Health Care and Fitness (a total of 177 SE/ SE projects) and Lifestyle (a total of 168 SE/ SE projects).

Besides, there were 77 newly listed SE units. Their common operational obstacles* are ‘High rental cost’ (selected by 41 SE/SE projects), ‘High production cost’ and ‘Low public awareness’ (selected by 39 SE/SE projects respectively). They believe ‘Enhance public education’ (selected by 41 SE/SE projects), ‘Organisations and corporations adopt responsible procurement policy’ (selected by 38 SE/SE projects) and ‘Increase financing channels’ (selected by 36 SE/SE projects) are the most helpful measures* that can assist SEs.

If you would like to know more about SE Directory 2022/23 – SE Figure, please refer to the below infographics (click to enlarge), or click here for downloading the full version.

*Some SE/ SE projects may belong to more than one industry or select more than one operational obstacle/ helpful measure