To terminate the importation of labour policy
Impassionate pleas have been made by some members for the immediate scrapping of the importation of labour schemes. The Administration has already indicated at an earlier motion debate in this Council last month, that we do not support this proposal. There is no obvious and direct causal link between our importation of labour policy and the recent increase in unemployment rate. The number of workers remaining in Hong Kong has actually been declining during the last few months when the unemployment rate went up. Our importation of labour schemes are carefully controlled and targeted solely towards relieving specific areas of shortage. Safeguards are in place to ensure that local workers are given priority in employment and that they should not be displaced by imported workers. Our imported workers have been playing a vital role in supporting the continued operation and development of many business companies which may otherwise have to shut down their production lines and retrench local workers. There is a proven economic need for imported workers in a considerable number of sectors of industry as well as airport core programme. We should not pre-empt the result of the review and put an end to the schemes pre- maturely.
Legislation to control the labour importation schemes
Some Members had called for control over imporation of labours to be enthrined by legislation. We have yet to be convinced that legislative controls are necessary and in the best interests of our community. A Private Member's Bill and a motion advocating a similar proposal were debated recently. Neither were supported by this Council.
Legislation to give priority in employment to local workers
As regards legislation to give priority in employment to local workers, let me reiterate the Government's position: we do not see any need to legislate for this. There are, as I said earlier, administrative safeguards under our importation of labour schemes to ensure that local workers will be given priority in employment. We will examine how to further strengthen the effectiveness of such measures in the context of our review on the General Scheme. Moreover, even if legislation were to be enacted, it will be extremely difficult if not impossible to enforce effectively, without at the same time causing serious disruption to the free market operation of our economy, damaging our harmonious labour relations, and unnecessarily restricting the freedom of choice for both employers and employees in the labour market, which will benefit nobody at the end of the day.