XN000022-1995-11-09 — Page 9

- 8

We want to implement proposals, therefore, on labour shortage and importation where it exists, which have the broadest possible community endorsement. We want to put in place proposals which suit the needs of the economy and the needs of the labour market, and we will continue our discussions with LegCo Members, with LAB, with labour groups and with employers, so as to try to come up with some proposals which plug the gap - or plug the holes in the boat - if and when they exist.

I do hope that we won't allow that particular issue, in some genuine differences of opinion, to become the focus of too much acrimonious argument when there are so many other things that we need to be working on and trying to get right together. But I am sure myself that those who talked about the importance of tripartite monitoring have a very good point because whatever we do has to carry the confidence of the community, and that means employees as well as employers.

Martin Barrow - and it was a point that Henry Tang referred to and that others referred to Martin mentioned the information gap. And it is not a way of avoiding making decisions to say that very often we have felt that we don't have as much information on some of these areas as we should have. So we do want to try to get a more thorough grasp of what is actually happening in the labour market with enhanced surveys, and we will be trying to put those in place over the coming weeks and months.

I hope that we have made it clear once again today that we do want to work with you employers and employees to tackle these problems. We don't believe that the Hong Kong Government can do everything itself or should try to do everything itself. I think Mr S.K. Chan underlined the great importance of us working together and trying to ensure that there is co-operation right across the community, and it will certainly be our intention to operate in that spirit. Mr Chan and others referred to the possibility of establishing a tripartite committee on employment generation or to enhancing that degree of tripartitism - if there is such a word which already exists, and we will certainly look at that proposal and those ideas because they have come forward from a number of people.

-

As has been mentioned, we are looking at the work of the Employees Retraining Board and the Vocational Training Council. I hope that the surveys which are being put in hand will be completed within the next five or six months and we would want, I think, to come back to you at that stage with the findings of those surveys and discuss with you the way forward in developing a long term strategy for job creation for enhancing employment opportunities in Hong Kong. So I fear that we will be asking you to come back and talk to us again in five or six months when we have got all that basic information available.