CONFIDENTIAL #
AL機密
16
Importation of cheap labour would jeopardise local workers' job opportunities and income earning prospects. As a result, while local workers would have to suffer more during recessions, they would also be deprived of the opportunity to enjoy the full benefits of economic
growth. Endangering the job opportunities and income earning prospects of workers in the manufacturing and construction sectors is likely to have considerable adverse effects on the social stability and economic prosperity of Hong Kong. Further, over time it is likely that the effective wage differential between Hong Kong workers and those from the SSEZ would disappear, probably as a result of wages in the SSEZ rising and those in liong kong either rising more slowly or falling.
33.
Besides endangering local workers' job opportunities and income earning prospects, the goods produced by these imported workers would probably not qualify for Hong Kong certificates of origin, as it would not be long before protectionist lobbies in the US and the EEC countries raised objections to imported workers' output being classified as "Hong Kong made". Many Fujian workers formerly working in Macau have been sent back to China largely for this reason.
34.
Also, as has been argued in relation to employing workers in the SSEZ itself, with imported workers from China, manufacturers in Hong Kong would be less inclined to install capital intensive machinery involving more sophisticated technology. Thus the productivity and the related income earning potential of the labour force would not improve as fast as it otherwise would. The trading up process in relation to many
G.F. 326
CONFIDENTIAL #B