TNAG-1795-FCO40-2555-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation--including-Opera-1988 — Page 338

XCC(87) 186

(c)

the person

6

(d)

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

possesses

Page

2

a special skill, knowledge or experience of value to and not readily available in Hong Kong; or

the person is in a position to make a substantial contribution to the economy of

Hong Kong.

Members advised and the Governor ordered

-

that suggestions to import unskilled ΟΙ semi-skilled foreign labour should be rejected and the existing policy on entry for employment or investment should continue to apply;

that a

paper should be submitted examining the feasibility of relaxing the criteria for the admission of skilled workers and the effect of such a relaxation in individual industries experiencing a shortage skilled workers;

of

that the paper should also examine the extent to which administrative action can be taken to relax the application of the rules governing the working of overtime and other measures to provide for flexibility in working hours; and

that for the time being there should be no publicity for the initiative ordered at

at (b) above.

Members subsequently confirmed that the examination under (b) should be confined to the construction industry. The informal approaches by NCNA that had started the current exercise had been aimed in particular at

at Hong Kong importing labour from China for the construction industry.

Review of Present Policy in Respect

of Skilled Workers for the Construction Industry

7

In recent years, importing skilled workers for the construction industry has been allowed only when their skills were not available in Hong Kong. Invariably when importation was allowed it was because special construction techniques were being used for the first time in Hong Kong, and

Hong Kong, and the numbers were kept low. For example 140 Thai workers skilled in the erection of prefabricated precast components were allowed to work on the Fairview Park project because the prefabricated system of construction was being used for

was being used for the first time in Hong Kong. Other such arrangements were for the Tuen Mun carriageway project and the Tolo Channel submarine pipeline.