reduce wage costs.
However, a recent crack-down by the Government, which has started imprisoning illegal immigrants who are caught, may well put an end to these practices, especially since it also seems likely that employers of illegal labour may also find themselves behind bars.
The Government says that it is monitoring the shortage carefully, though it admits that 'there is no Government scheme, as such, to encourage labour into the construction industry.'
Some contractors suggested that there should be some kind of working visa introduced so that Chinese labourers from the Mainland could be brought in to alleviate the situation, though strictly on a short-term basis.
However, others in the industry point out that, histori- cally, the boom/slump cycle in the construction and property industry has had a relatively short rotation of 4 years to 5
years.
Therefore, it was suggested, if new measures were intro- duced to bring in foreign labourers, if the boom was suddenly to come to a halt, there would be enormous problems created by the surplus of labour, not to mention the probable resentment of local workers who could see their wage levels reduced by the competition of cheap foreign workers.
However, the labour shortage is not limited to on-site workers.
Several commentators said that the 'brain-drain' had also had a serious effect on the number of fully-qualified, mid- level management staff.
Thus the industry is also faced with the increasing diffi- culty of finding sufficient staff who are capable of overseeing construction projects.
Overall, however, most industry sources are confident that the construction industry is capable of surmounting the difficulties it is facing, and are predicting more bumper years ahead.
T
A SERVICE FROM TARGET
If you are a weekly TARGET Intelligence Report subscriber, and you have always wondered what the TARGET's daily Financial Service looks like; or, conversely, if you already have the daily TARGET Financial Service and you want to have a look at the weekly TARGET Intelligence Report, why don't you just send your office boy down to the MTR station of:
1. Central
2. Tsim Sha Tsui
3. Causeway Bay 4. Mongkok
There is a kiosk there called, the TV Week Service Centre.
Give the girl your name card and say to her, 'I want to have a sample copy of TARGET, please.' And bingo!
TARGET will be given to you on the spot.
Or if your friend wants to get a sample copy of TARGET, please pass on this message.
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