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"The review is to ensure that the Scheme serves its objectives of relieving temporary bottlenecks in Hong Kong's labour market and at the same time not eroding the job opportunities of local workers," the spokesman said.
He pointed out that the review would examine the application and vetting procedures, and the quota allocation criteria to ensure that they were geared to the specific requirements in industries and trades where there were demonstrated labour shortage problems.
"The review is also looking into the monitoring procedures to plug any possible loopholes and we intend to involve employers and employees to a larger extent in the monitoring process," he said.
He noted that the Governor would invite employers' representatives for a meeting next week and had undertaken to call a summit meeting in early June to bring both employers and employees together to work out practical solutions to the labour situation.
Meanwhile, the Government is taking active steps to help the displaced workers through job placement assistance and retraining. Major initiatives in this direction are as follows:
A Pilot Job Matching Programme has been in operation at five local employment services offices of the Labour Department since April 1. It matches persons over 30 years of age with job vacancies. So far out of 488 persons registered in the programme, 133 placements have been made. The Government is planning to extend the programme to all nine local employment services offices by this Autumn.
The Employees Retraining Board (ERB) has been providing suitable retraining courses for people over 30 years of age to help them re-enter the workforce. About 60% - 70% of those retrainees who are active job- seekers are able to find employment after completing the courses. A total of 64,500 retrainees have gone through this programme. The ERB will give top priority to developing services for retrenched employees and the unemployed.
Discussions are now at an advanced stage with a number of big employers to offer to retrainees on-the-job training programmes for skilled jobs with a serious labour shortage. After successful completion of six months training, all jobs will offer a starting pay of $7,000 a month, as against the average of $5,000 for unskilled jobs.