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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
COMMISSIONER for Resettlement:-Mr. Chairman, this is developing into a debate and I would like to say that I do not accept that question, and I do not propose to answer it.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, I understand that Government intends to provide resettlement type accommodation over the next six years for over half a million people. Could the Commissioner be good enough to prepare a projection of the number of people who could be accommodated in resettlement type of accommodation over the next five years, both on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon, and have that brought to the attention of the Resettlement Policy Select Committee.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: ---Certainly.
(10) MR. A. de O. SALES asked the following question:-
(a) Has the Hawker Policy Select Committee considered approaching the Labour Department to register hawkers who may wish to take up employment in industry? (b) Does the Government provide suitable training opportunities for those hawkers who wish to earn a living differently?
(c) What measures are contemplated to attract young people away from hawking for a living?
MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN, CHAIRMAN OF THE HAWKER POLICY SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:-
As regards the first part of the question, the Hawker Policy Select Committee has already approached the Labour Department to register hawkers who may wish to work in industry.
During the recent clearance of illegal hawkers from Marble Road where nearly 400 hawkers balloted at the Mrs. Chan Wai-chow Memorial School on the afternoon of 13th September, a mobile Local Employment Service registration team from the Labour Department was stationed next to the balloting point to offer registration to any hawker seeking alternative employment, industrial or otherwise. This team had been arranged by the Commissioner of Labour in response to a request from the Hawker Policy Select Committee and was also available during the morning of 14th September and throughout the clearance operation on Monday, 15th September. The presence of the employment service desk and its function were explained in detail over the loudspeakers to the assembled hawkers. During the total of 12 working hours that the mobile registration team was available at Marble Road,
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
only 5 hawkers approached the desk to enquire about alternative employment, and only one actually registered. During these interviews, a number of existing vacancies, carrying pay of slightly over $300 per month, were offered to the enquirers who invariably answered that they were not interested in any job offering less than $500-600 a month, as they earned at least that much from hawking. It is known that many hawkers earn even more than $600 per month by hawking.
As regards the second and third parts of the question,
Government does, of course, provide a wide range of theoretical training in the Technical College. This, however, may not be suitable for hawkers, who are generally unskilled, and who would require on-the-job industrial training, which can best be provided by industry itself. If, however, Government should later on co-operate with industry in providing on-the-job training it would not be directed towards hawkers only but to all who wanted to have such training, and that would include hawkers as well.
The experience with the Marble Road and other operations indicate that for economic reasons few, if any, hawkers wish to change at this time their mode of earning a living. For the average hawker, industrial employment appears to have no attractions; he is largely a free agent who decides for himself when and how he needs work; and the married women with small children can still contribute to the family earnings from hawking, while simultaneously watching their children.
The Hawker Policy Select Committee has already made preliminary contact with the Labour, Social Welfare and Education Departments with a view to closer co-ordination of effort in channelling hawkers, including young people, into industry. We are also awaiting the results of the survey by the Urban Services Department of the number of hawkers, including young hawkers under the age of 18, within the urban areas.
In the Labour Department Report for 1967-68, the range of daily wages in manufacturing industries during March, 1968 was given as follows:
Skilled workers $11 - 32 Semi-skilled workers $ 6.20-24 Unskilled workers $ 5.60 - 14.70Most adult hawkers are unskilled in any trade, and it would seem from the Labour Department's statistics that in
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