Hong Kong Home Affairs Bureau has teamed up with Commercial Radio to launch two new radio programs from June 18 -- "Hong Kong-Pak This Evening" in the Pakistani language Urdu, and "Nepal Darshan" (A Glimpse of Nepal) in Nepali.

Local personalities from the respective ethnic communities will be invited to talk about their cultural heritage and social inclusion, according to a government press release on Friday.

The programs will also feature a variety of useful information and entertainment, including music, news, sport, current affairs and community services that are relevant to the ethnic minority communities.

"The radio programs are our continuing initiative to enhance the ethnic minorities' sense of belonging in Hong Kong, while retaining their own cultural identities," a Home Affairs Bureau spokesman said on Friday.

The programs will be broadcast on Commercial Radio AM864 on 26 consecutive Saturdays from June 18 to December 10.

Abid Ali Baig will host "Hong Kong-Pak This Evening" and Pushpa Kumar Rai will host "Nepal Darshan". Baig has 30 years of broadcasting experience in Pakistan and is both a poet and a writer and Rai was with the former British Forces Broadcasting Service for nearly two decades and his voice is familiar to many Nepalese in Hong Kong.

(Xinhua News Agency June 17, 2005)