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Since the issue of the report on the Review of the General Scheme, we have consulted the Labour Advisory Board (LAB) and are continuing our discussions with Members of this Council. We are also listening to public views. At its meeting on 2 November 1995, the LAB agreed in principle to monitor the Supplementary Labour Scheme. It also recommended some changes to streamline the application procedures and shorten the duration of the recruitment period from 3 months to 2 months. This is achieved by allowing the employer to conduct the recruitment exercise concurrently with the Labour Department's JMP. The LAB also recommended that special cases which have already gone through the advertisement and JMP process may be given special consideration for early approval if so recommended by LAB. These are reasonable recommendations which Government will consider positively.
(b) Our proposal to terminate the General Labour Importation Scheme and to introduce the Supplementary Labour Scheme followed a comprehensive review of the General Scheme. The review took into account the results of the enhanced surveys which had been undertaken to provide more information on the profile of those who were unemployed and on the job vacancies. It also took into account the community's concern on the matter and the views expressed by Members of this Council, the trade unions and the employers' associations.
We do not believe that the termination of the General Scheme coupled with the introduction of the proposed SLS would have any adverse effect on industrial and commercial developments. The General Scheme was introduced in 1989 against the background of a very tight labour market and acute labour shortage. However, the labour market has undergone substantial changes in recent months. We now have a surplus of local workers in those broad occupations which cover jobs of a similar nature to many of the posts now occupied by the imported workers under the General Scheme. But we recognise that there may be areas of labour shortage or surplus of vacancies at the individual job level which cannot be ascertained through any statistical surveys.
Also, there may be vacancies that our more sophisticated workforce no longer want to fill. The proposed Supplementary Labour Scheme seeks to retain the policy option of employing a limited number of foreign workers to take up jobs which cannot be filled by local workers, so as to maintain the competitiveness of Hong Kong as an open and flexible economy. As such, it should have a positive impact on the business development of Hong Kong, while ensuring that local workers will not be deprived of any job opportunities.
End/Wednesday, November 8, 1995