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This is an impressive record but there is no room for complacency. Our unemployment rate, for example, is low compared with other major economies but the latest unemployment figures show that the labour market has eased somewhat from the latter part of last year. This is a situation which must be monitored closely and assistance given to unemployed workers where we can. The Labour Department has recently launched a Pilot Job Matching Programme and has been successful in arranging job placements for over a hundred people in the first few weeks of its. operation. Also, the Employees Retraining Board has stepped up its retraining efforts in equipping the unemployed with new skills so that they can rejoin our workforce.
We must also heed one of the most important calls made at the Summit for UN members and member states to look beyond their own boundaries and to actively participate in international, regional and sub-regional co-operation in social development through the United Nations and other multilateral organisations. We will continue to do all we can to contribute especially at the regional level through our involvement in APEC and ESCAP. We will also remain one of the staunchest supporters of free trade and multilateral trading system through our membership in the World Trade Organisation.
The Summit's recommendations do not invoke courses of action for Hong Kong. We have always been a society which cares deeply about the well-being of our people. The recommendations do, however, remind us of our duty to use a proper share of the wealth we generate to ensure that members of our community do not suffer from poverty or deprivation and to ensure that they have the education, skills, job opportunities and circumstances to allow them to live a rich, full and meaningful life.
The Summit seeks to launch a new era of international co-operation between governments and peoples based on a spirit of partnership that puts the people's needs, rights and aspirations at the centre of decision making and planning for the benefit of all humanity now and into the twenty-first century. We will look to fulfil our part in this common cause.
End/Wednesday, May 17, 1995
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