- 11.
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Reply:
(c)
(d)
Mr President,
of the trades in which such PRC professionals are engaged after their entry into the territory and their respective remuneration and benefits; and
when the Government will conduct a detailed and comprehensive review of the scheme?
The Pilot Scheme for the entry of 1,000 professionals from China is a limited extension to the existing policy on the entry of overseas professionals who possess skills, knowledge or experience of value to, but not readily available in Hong Kong.
There were altogether 3,129 applications for the 1,000 quotas under the Scheme. Four quarterly ballot exercises (for 250 quotas each time) were held from April 1994 to April 1995. The Immigration Department subsequently invited all the 1,000 applicants whose applications were drawn up to submit formal applications under the Scheme. The 2,129 applications not drawn out in the ballot exercises were put on a computer-generated reserve list, so that as and when there were quotas left over from applications which were either refused or withdrawn, the Department would ask the applicants on this list to submit a formal application.
In October 1995, in view of the slow utilisation of the quotas (mainly because of the substantial number of applications withdrawn by the applicants), the Immigration Department asked all the companies on the reserve list to confirm their interest in remaining in the Scheme. As a result, a total of 1,216 applications were placed on the reserve list. As of 31 January 1997, all the applicants of the 2,216 selected quota applications comprising 1,000 drawn up from the four balloting exercises and the 1,216 on the reserve list have been called up to submit their formal applications. The processing of all the outstanding quota applications under the Scheme has also come to an end.
My replies to the specific parts of the question are as follows-
(a)
As of 31 January 1997, out of the total of the 2,216 formal applications for quotas (the original 1,000 successful applications in the four ballot exercises plus 1,216 from the reserve list) 689 applications for quotas have been approved. Applicants with approved quotas are normally given four months to arrange for the submission of visa applications by the candidates. Of the 689 approved quota applications, 529 visa applications have been approved. There are about 30 outstanding visa applications.