XN000022-1995-03-29 — Page 39

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The findings of the latest General Household Survey confirm that our labour market remains tight, with consistently low unemployment and underemployment rates. Many sectors are suffering from shortage of labour. The labour importation schemes are devised to ease temporary bottlenecks in our labour market in order to sustain economic growth. The need for the schemes was reaffirmed by this Council at a recent debate. During last week's debate, again many Members raised the same views on the schemes. I agree that the schemes must be flexible and targeted to meet the specific needs of industries where there is a shortage of labour. Members' comments on the need to enhance the effectiveness in the allocation of quota under the General Scheme have been carefully noted. We will look into these suggestions in our review on the operation of the scheme and consult the Labour Advisory Board and this Council over the next six months, so that any necessary improvements could be incorporated into the scheme before the next allocation exercise.

Members have also expressed concern about the possible impact of imported labour on the employment opportunities of local workers. The stringent vetting and monitoring measures under the current schemes are precisely to safeguard the interests of local workers by ensuring that they are given first priority in filling vacancies and that they will not be displaced by imported workers through abuse of the system. Every application for imported workers is meticulously scrutinised to ensure that there is a genuine need to do so. Furthermore, we are bringing together contractors and local construction workers for Airport Core Programme projects to ensure that our workforce are made fully aware of the job opportunities available. This is why a Special Placement Service has been launched to help local workers find jobs related to ACP projects. The Special Placement drive received over 780 enquiries since it started operation on 20 March and we have now been able to arrange job interviews for over 300 workers.

That said, we are not indifferent to the unemployment situation and will continue to do our best to help those workers who encounter difficulties in finding jobs. We have not forgotten for one moment that the unemployment rates, low as they are, represent real people, majority of whom are displaced workers affected by the structural changes in our economy. These people want to work and we respect that. We believe that the solution lies in job placement assistance and retraining.

The Local Employment Services of the Labour Department provide free service to unemployed persons by matching employers with applicants. We have also set up the Employees Retraining Board to retrain workers with new, marketable skills. To effect a synergy of these services, we will launch this week a Pilot Employment Placement Matching Scheme which is an integration of the Local Employment Services and the Employees Retraining Scheme. Under this new Scheme, an unemployed persons over the age of 30 can enlist under a Special Register at 5 Local Employment Services offices. Through direct job referrals and tailor-made retraining, we seek to maximise the employment opportunities of the registrants. We shall review the effectiveness of this new scheme at the end of this year.