- 2 -

We told the meeting that we'd be hoping to come forward with final proposals on labour importation over the coming weeks, which we hope will ensure that we have as fair and effective a system as possible. I don't think that we can ignore the genuine concerns which have been put forward by employees representatives and unions about labour importation. I don't think that we can ignore the genuine worries in the community, but I think there's also a recognition that you can't run a sophisticated, modern economy like Hong Kong with absolutely no capacity to bring in people to meet skill shortages where that's required and what the Government has to do is to get the balance right.

Over and over again there was reference to the importance of us working together, of us having a tripartite approach to these problems and we'll be looking at whether we need to make any institutional changes to take account of that, by the time we come back for our next meeting.

Question: (inaudible)

Governor: There were no other specific proposals put forward this afternoon but we're carrying on the discussions with LegCo, with the LAB, with employees representatives, with employers, and we hope that we will get as broad a base of support for whatever proposals we finally come to, as possible.

Question: (inaudible)

Governor: Well, there were quite a lot of people who said that we needed to enhance the work of those bodies which already bring together employees, employers and Government, to look at the job market and there's one very valuable body that works with the Labour Department and of course, the LAB itself plays a part in that role. But we'll obviously be looking at whether we need to do more and to give any of those bodies a rather higher profile.

Question: (inaudible)

Governor: I'm absolutely convinced that the Government can and should do more to make the labour market more effective and flexible and that the Government can and should do more to improve our education and school base in Hong Kong which is going to be the source of our future growth and employment opportunities. There was a very, very substantial focus today on retraining, on skills, on education and I think that's absolutely right.

Question: (inaudible)

Share This Page