5-
of free or assisted education. Five-technical institutes with a
capacity of 6,600 day and 20,000 evening students, will have been
operating for four years, and no doubt more institutes will have
been added. The Polytechnic will for three years have had a
capacity for 11,400 day and 30,000 evening students. A whole
new generation of trained craftsmen, technicians and technologists
will be available. The young workforce will be changed from one
with largely a primary school background to one with at least
junior secondary and in a majority of cases additional academic
or technical qualifications.
The new psychiatric wing of Princess Margaret Hospital
will have been open for 2 years. The Sha Tin Hospital will have
just opened and the Tuen Mun Hospital will have been completed and
be in the process of opening. The construction of new clinics with
increased numbers of consulting rooms should have greatly reduced waiting time for patients. A school dental service will have been zin operation for three years. A dental school and a new medical school will be in full operation in the Universities.
I cannot say what the picture will be in social welfare as
all aspects of both services and cash payments will be reviewed this
year. But I hope this review whose findings will be published as a
green paper, will result in general agreement on a system of services
and payments appropriate to Hong Kong's particular circumstances which
may be gradually introduced, and which will have been in full operation
for several years before 1983.
Similarly in the field of labour legislation we will, for some
years, have had a system of basic protection for the conditions of work
and employment that will be tailored to our own situation and compare
favourably with other similar Asian' communities.
/Taken