HONG KONG 'BRAINDRAIN' AND THE EFFECTS ON BARCLAYS BANK
Although the 1984 Joint Declaration of HMG and the Government of the PRC on the future of Hong Kong provides, interalia, that Hong Kong's social and economic system as well as lifestyle will remain unchanged after 1997, many of Hong Kong's residents think otherwise. Their doubts have been compounded by the Chinese Government's recent crackdown on that country's pro-democracy movement, the most dramatic example of which was the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4th.
The sceptism of the Hong Kong people has manifested itself in
This has increasing levels of emigration over the past decade. contributed to a significant "braindrain" as many of those leaving the Colony are highly trained professionals, entrepreneurs and skilled artisans.
In 1980, the number of emigrants was 22,000 and this increased to 45,800 in 1988. Next year, the figure is expected to be 55,000.
The (Hong Kong has a population of approximately 5.5 million. numbers leaving would be infinitely higher but for the fact that destination countries have limits as to how many immigrants they can accept.
In
Since the beginning of 1988 to date, Barclays in Hong Kong has lost twenty-eight members of staff (out of a present staff complement of 372) to emigration including eight managers and eleven officers. The destination countries were either Canada, Australia, USA or New Zealand. More importantly, the braindrain has contributed to large shortages of manpower and a high staff turnover, as employees exploit the very tight labour market. 1988 the staff turnover for the Hong Kong Banking Industry as a
Barclays whole was 27% and will be considerably higher this year. own staff turnover level last year was 33% and is currently running at 49%. One hundred and thirty seven staff members resigned in 1988 of whom nineteen emigrated and in 1989 to date, one hundred and eighty two people have left the Bank's employ of which nine have emigrated.
Clearly, no organisation can afford this kind of hemorrhaging and the fact is that the constant loss of experienced staff undermine. our performance and has added considerably to the salaries bill t attract and retain suitably qualified staff. British Banks are also disadvantaged by French and American Banks who are able to 'offer' passports or 'green cards' to key personnel. Furthermore Hong Kong remains an important regional and financial centre in which the Bank seeks to play an effective role.
The deteriorating political climate between HMG and the PRC since June 4th has resulted in pressure groups being formed to persuade HMG to reverse its immigration policy and grant the right of abo: Clearly this is unacceptable to HM- to all Hong Kong's citizens.
but it is very important that in their deliberations on how to
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