13.
Hong Kong's economic success owes much to our hardworking people and our free market system. Entry of foreign nationals to work in Hong Kong is nothing new. From the very beginning, expatriates brought in managerial expertise and professional knowledge. The rapid and large scale development of our manufacturing industry in the fifties and sixties could not have happened without the arrival of large numbers of people with capital and talents from China. Then in the seventies and eighties, foreign domestic helpers arrived to fill vacancies no longer sought by local workers.
At a time of rapid economic expansion and restructuring, we introduced the importation of labour schemes as short-term measures to relieve temporary bottlenecks in our local labour market and to build our new airport and related projects. These schemes are all carefully designed and controlled to ensure that both the types and quantity of the imported workers are strictly confined to those sectors of industry facing genuine shortage of local workers. Many operators in these sectors would not have been able to maintain their business operations and to support their existing local workforce without these schemes especially at times of critical labour shortage. Clearly it is not in the interest of local workers to see the closing down of such businesses. Moreover, Members will wish to note that the policy of importation of labour includes not just admitted under the general schemes and also overseas professionals and foreign domestic workers. Surely, the community will not wish to see to be deprived of the services of these people.
Thus, the importation of labour policy has by no means gone against our efforts to enhance employment opportunities for local workers. On the contrary, it has served to complement what we have been doing. It will not be therefore right to call for its termination without thoroughly and carefully reviewing its value in the context of our overall employment policies and our economy.
Unemployment rate
We are of course aware that the overall unemployment rate has recently risen during the last few months. The latest rate of 2.8% (or in absolute terms, some 68,000 people out of a total workforce of nearly three million) has prompted discussions in the public arena that in order to contain the unemployment rate, we should discontinue our importation of labour policy now. This, I am afraid, is not the appropriate way to take.