XN000022-1995-05-18 — Page 8

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There is one other issue that I should mention. There is obviously concern about illegal immigration into Hong Kong and the impact of that on the jobs market. And what we intend to do is to double the task force in the Immigration Department dealing with illegal immigration and we are also going to increase the penalties. But there will be more opportunities for you asking questions about this next week when I talk to the employers and when I speak to both employers and employees. And the Secretary will be having a full briefing on the background to some of the things I've announced later on this afternoon.

Question: Just a follow-up on that though. With almost 30,000 people under the importation of labour scheme, you have to admit that if those people were filled with local Hong Kong people, then the unemployment number would significantly change. Although the numbers are different, I agree with that. But if those

Governor: But there has been no new quota under the importation scheme since last August and yet the number of unemployed has been rising. You've also got to look, given your analogy, at the number of published vacancies which is almost as high as the number of unemployed. So the situation is far more complicated than I think that comparison you made would suggest. But we have to do is to look at the issue with an open mind, determined to stick to our long term objective of measures that will create jobs in Hong Kong rather than create jobs elsewhere. What we want in Hong Kong is a competitive, high wage, high employment economy. And if we take measures that make Hong Kong less competitive, then we'll fetch up with a high unemployment, low wage economy. Thanks very much indeed.

End/Thursday, May 18, 1995

Government to make major efforts to address employment situation

The Government will not allocate any new quota under the Labour Importation General Scheme until the Administration has mapped out the way forward based on the results of the current review which will be announced in October.

This was stated by a Government spokesman today (Thursday) following the Governor's meeting with representatives of labour groups.

"We have decided to advance the completion of the current review on the operation of the Scheme by three months and will announce the results by October this year.