ENG-1998 — Page 177

EMPLOYMENT

and managerial personnel are also admitted with minimum formalities. During the year, 14 920 professionals and persons with technical, administrative or managerial skills from more than 70 countries were admitted for employment.

The government's policy on importation of labour is based on two cardinal principles:

(a) Local workers must be given priority in filling job vacancies available in the job

market.

(b) Employers who are genuinely unable to recruit local workers to fill their job.

vacancies should be allowed to import workers.

The government operates two labour importation schemes the Supplementary Labour Scheme and the Special Labour Importation Scheme for the New Airport and Related Projects.

The Supplementary Labour Scheme commenced on February 1, 1996 and was reviewed in March 1998. All applications are considered on a case-by-case basis. To ensure priority of employment for local workers, each application for imported workers has to pass three tests before it is submitted to the Secretary for Education and Manpower for a decision newspaper advertisements, job-matching by the Labour Department for six weeks (plus tailor-made retraining course for workers, if possible) and consideration by the Labour Advisory Board. In 1998, a total of 2 162 visas/entry permits were approved and a cumulative total of 5 336 visa/entry permit applications had been approved up to the end of December 1998 since the implementation of the scheme. The government reviews the scheme annually.

The Special Importation of Labour Scheme for the New Airport and Related Projects was introduced in May 1990 to facilitate the timely completion of the new airport and related projects. It operates under a quota ceiling of 17 000. All contractors who have been awarded contracts for the new airport and related projects are eligible to apply for imported workers under the scheme. To safeguard the interests of local workers, each application has to comply with several basic requirements. These include: the number, type and duration of employment of imported workers must be compatible with the manpower requirements of the works contract in question; wages offered must be no less than those offered to a local worker in a comparable position; the employer must go through a four-week local recruitment test for the job vacancy at the Labour Department to give priority of employment to local workers; and the imported worker is to remain only under the direct employment of the same employer under the specific works contract(s) up to the duration of the employment contract and to engage only in work stipulated in such a contract. The new airport commenced operation on July 6, 1998. At December 31, 1998, 184 imported workers were still working in Hong Kong to complete the residual and extension works of the projects.

Entry of Mainland Professionals for Employment

The Pilot Scheme for the entry of mainland professionals was introduced in March 1994 with a quota ceiling of 1 000 to allow the entry of graduate professionals from any of the 36 key mainland tertiary institutions, for employment in Hong Kong. All Hong Kong companies can apply under the scheme. At the end of the year, 602 out of the total of 2 216 applications had been approved and 602 employment entry permits issued. The government has completed the review of the pilot scheme. It was

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