ENG-2000 — Page 180

EMPLOYMENT

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a wide variety of day and evening courses delivered through a network of over 60 approved training bodies. The courses broadly fall into six categories: job search skills courses, job-specific skills courses, general skills courses, courses for the elderly, courses for people with disabilities and tailor-made courses.

During the year, 36 772 retrainees attended full-time day courses and 41 947 retrainees attended part-time courses provided under the ERS. In order to reinforce the effectiveness of the scheme, two Retraining Resource Centres were set up in Yau Ma Tei and Lok Fu in December 1999 and March 2000 respectively to provide self-learning facilities, job market information and other supporting services to all graduate retrainees.

Imported Workers

General Policy on Entry for Employment

The Immigration Department controls the entry of foreigners for employment. Foreigners may work or invest in Hong Kong if they possess a special skill, knowledge or experience of value to and not readily available in Hong Kong, or if they can make a substantial contribution to the economy.

The department applies the policy in a flexible manner. Genuine business persons and entrepreneurs are welcome to establish a presence in Hong Kong, bringing with them capital and expertise. Qualified professionals, technical staff, administrators and managerial personnel are also admitted with minimum formalities. During the year, 18 740 professionals and persons with technical, administrative or managerial skills from more than 88 countries/territories were admitted for employment.

Importation of Labour

Apart from the above, a Supplementary Labour Scheme is operated for the importation of workers who do not fall under the general policy on entry 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; and

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

vacancies should be allowed to import workers.

This scheme commenced in February 1996. 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 various tests before it is submitted to the Labour Advisory Board for consideration and the Secretary for Education and Manpower for a decision-advertising in newspapers, job-matching by the Labour Department for six weeks, and tailor-made retraining course for workers, if appropriate. In all, 1 194 visas/entry permits were approved during the year and a cumulative total of 7 360 visa/entry permit applications had been approved by the end of 2000.

Admission of Talent

A new Admission of Talents Scheme was introduced in December 1999 to attract talented people, especially those from the Mainland, to come to Hong Kong for employment. The aim of the scheme is to enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness as a

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