CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH
Telephone 01-
HKK 212/5
RECEIVED IN REGISTZY NO. 51
·
2 AUG 1978
DESK OFFICER INDEX
PA
لله
REGISTRY Action Taken
ह
The Hon EP Ho JP
The Secretary for Social Services Government Secretariat
Hong Kong
Your reference
Our reference
Date 28 July 1978
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LABOUR RELATIONS AND SOCIAL SECURITY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA
1. I am sorry to see that we here never sent you an acknowledgement of your letter CR4/276/?7 of 10 Harch enclosing the report by the Hong Kong tean who visited other countries in the region last year to study labour and social conditions.
?. It was, of course, a fairly detailed report, and it has taken us some time to read it in detail. On the whole, Hong Kong comes out very well from the comparison. This is particularly true in terms of your ability to enforce labour legislation - a fact which many of Hong Kongs critics here tend to ignore.
3. However, as I am sure you are fully aware, the report also shows that there is still some way to go before you attain the objective announced by the Governor in his speech to the legislative council in October 1976, when he said that the aim was to make Hong Kongs labour and social security legislation equal to the best in neigh- bouring Asian countries, with the exception of Japan. We look forward to the time when an updated version of table 23 would show Hong Kong in the top category under every heading.
bcc: Overseas Labour Adviser
VE Quantrill
Hong Kong & General Department
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