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Secondly, on drug abuse. The sort of summit which we are holding at the beginning of the week after next, is not the first such summit that we have held. We have held three in relation to the disabled - two on the Disabled and Public Transport and one on the Disabled Unemployment and I think that they have helped both in a public expenditure role, and I think they have also helped to shape policy usefully, not least the certainty that they were going to be followed up. The Drug Abuse Meeting is in a slightly different category, not least since there will be more participants. One reason why I have called it is to try to focus more community attention on this issue. And why? Because one of the few areas where there is real concern for worry when one looks at our crime and other statistics, is the growth of drug offenders, the growth of abuse, not least among the young. The figures there are deeply disturbing. I have prepared myself for this summit in a number of ways. I have had a number of meetings; I visited the other day the Police Narcotics Bureau to have a full briefing for them. And I hope that out of the discussions at the beginning of March, with head teachers, with social workers, with the Police and with others who are expert in this field, we will be able to come forward with an agenda which means literally what it says, in other words, things to be acted on not just things to gab about, to talk about. The meeting isn't merely a public education exercise, it is to try to get a focus and try to get an agreed campaign going right across the community, so that we can stop in Hong Kong the same dreadful social problems that have ravaged other communities.
End/Thursday, February 23, 1995
New arrangement for entry of PRC fisherman deckhands
The Government announced today (Thursday) a new arrangement allowing a limited number of fisherman deckhands from China (PRC) working on dually- licensed, Hong Kong-based fishing vessels to enter Hong Kong for a short stay.
"This arrangement aims to enable the smooth operation of Hong Kong's distant- water fishing fleet as well as to tighten immigration control over the entry of PRC deckhands," a Government spokesman said.
"The fishing industry in Hong Kong has been facing acute labour shortage as fewer and fewer local people join the industry.
"Previously, the employment of PRC fisherman deckhands had been included in the General Importation of Labour Scheme, but the scheme's conditions were incompatible with the industry's mode of operation.