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Question: Mr Governor, just an old point. Actually what is the biggest achievement that the summit has made?
Governor: The biggest achievement is that despite the fact that there are sincerely held disagreements about the causes of unemployment, we had a constructive, positive, civilised, sensible discussion and that I think means that we have a better chance of developing common ground and a consensus for our employment policies here in Hong Kong. Thank you very much.
End/Tuesday, June 6, 1995
Local workers are given employment priority
The acting Chief Secretary, Mr Michael Leung, today (Tuesday) pointed out that both the General Labour Importation Scheme and the Special Scheme for Airport Core Projects are carefully controlled and they are targeted precisely towards the alleviation of shortages in the bottleneck areas.
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"There is a proven economic necessity for imported workers. responsibility is to make sure that they are still working to their intended purpose," said Mr Leung when addressing the employment summit chaired by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten.
He reassured that government's importation of labour policy was built upon the principle that priority in employment must be given to local workers and that they should not be displaced by imported workers.
He warned that any employer who breached any of the conditions under the schemes would risk having their quotas withdrawn and being barred from future participation in the schemes.
On the immediate concern to assist the displaced workers to rejoin the workforce through job placement assistance and retraining, he invited employers who were looking for staff to provide the Labour Department with information on vacancies.
He also called on those workers who needed employment assistance to register with Labour Department's Pilot Job Matching Programme.
End/Tuesday, June 6, 1995