XN000022-1996-10-10 — Page 3

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The other point that I want to make is this. For a community which believes in free trade in everything else and a free market in everything else, I do think it is curious that the importation of labour and skills creates so much controversy. But it does, and that has a number of reasons. One of the reasons is that unions think that existing schemes are abused by employers. Now I know that that doesn't happen most of the time but I'm afraid we did see on the airport, earlier this year, the allegations made by the unions turned out to be largely true.

The other thing which unions worry about is the use of imported labour to undercut wage bargaining. So I think it is important in trying to introduce more calm and rationality into the discussion, to address those particular issues that are raised by the unions. And one we can tackle by getting rid of abuses, the other I hope we can start to tackle by raising the skill level in our workforce and by investing more in more relevant training and retraining.

Having said all of which, if you look around the region, if you look at some other OECD countries and compare their immigration and work permit regimes with ours, we would come very near the liberal end of the spectrum in practice. But nevertheless, there are anxieties expressed this year by employers, just as there were anxieties expressed last year by employees, and I very much hope that we can proceed as far as possible on a basis of consensus in dealing with this issue because it is one which could otherwise cause the risks of social disharmony.

Question: Are there any conditions under which you would work with the Provisional Legislature?

Governor: No. That's the short answer. Might I just add one point. I don't need to express my views, the British Foreign Secretary's views, about the establishment of a provisional legislature in July 1997. You know what our views are on that and they are not going to change. What none of us can understand is why anybody should think that a provisional legislature is required before July 1, 1997.

Anson, when she went up to see Director Lu in the Spring, took a very full paper which was subsequently circulated to the members of the Preparatory Committee, in which we set out in detail why a provisional legislature before June 30 wasn't required. And I think we thought we were having some effect with that argument because in The Hague in April, Vice Premier Qian Qichen said there could only be one Legislative Council between now and June 30 and that any provisional legislature would only assume its functions after June 30. Nevertheless, one or two things have been said recently which have suggested that the situation might be other than that.