XN000022-1995-10-11 — Page 26

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18.

* Tax rates had been cut to provide reductions for almost every salaried

employee.

* The share of public spending had remained firmly below 20 per cent of GDP.

End/Wednesday, October 11, 1995

Foreign worker quotas lowered

Hong Kong employers will be able to import up to 5,000 foreign workers under a new supplementary labour scheme to start on January 1 next year.

Announcing this today (Wednesday) in his Policy Address to the Legislative Council, the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, said this was a reduction from the 25,000 foreign workers permitted under the existing General Labour Importation Scheme.

The General Scheme was introduced in 1989 to relieve an acute labour shortage, he said.

A review of the General Scheme which ended last month had concluded that:

* Imported labour had made a valuable contribution to Hong Kong's economy, in overcoming bottlenecks in key, high-growth sectors or shortages of specific skills.

* The territory needed to retain policy options which allowed Hong Kong to respond rapidly to sudden rises in the demand for particular types of worker in its highly-flexible economy.

* The existing General Scheme should be changed in its operation and its quota

sizes.

Mr Patten said the existing scheme would run down naturally over the next year or so and be replaced with radically revised arrangements for the importation of labour.