XN000022-1996-09-12 — Page 13

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"The Government is determined to ensure the provision of the most efficient, cost-effective and market responsive training and retraining programmes for our workers well into the 21st century", Mr Wong said.

Noting that the 'mismatch' in the labour market was largely a product of the restructuring process of Hong Kong's economy, Mr Wong said the Government had been using a three-dimension approach to solve the problem.

They include: (a) helping the unemployed find jobs to fill the vacancies in the market; (b) implementing a suitable labour importation policy to cope with the possible manpower shortage facing employers; and (c) ensuring that the labour force possess the requisite skills to cope with the needs of the Hong Kong economy in the longer term.

To help the unemployed rejoin the workforce was the Government's top priority in solving the employment problems, Mr Wong stressed, pointing out that the Labour Department had expanded its free employment services to cater for the needs of different job-seekers.

From November 1995 to July 1996, the Local Employment Service (LES) of the department had placed over 19,500 job seekers as against around 14,000 for the same period last year, representing an increase of 46 per cent.

Within LES, the Job Matching Programme (JMP) has been open to unemployed job-seekers of all ages from February. The service has been made more efficient with the installation of a computer network system at all the nine LES offices to facilitate the sharing of vacancy information.

As at the end of July, a total of 10,244 job-seekers have registered with JMP and 5,928 job offers have been secured for them, representing a consistent success rate of around 75 per cent, up from 64 per cent at the time of the last Summit.

Other arrangements put in place by the Labour Department are: a Job Matching Centre tasked with matching job-seekers to fill vacancies under the Supplementary Labour Scheme (SLS); an outreaching placement service for providing on-the-spot registration service to workers affected by major retrenchments; and the Special Placement Service for the New Airport and Related Projects.

In addition, the Airport Authority and the Mass Transit Railway Corporation have jointly operated a job centre for the airport related projects.

Mr Wong appealed to employers who are looking for staff, and workers who may need employment assistance, to make good use of these services.