Press Release

 

 

Speech by the Secreary for Education and Manpower

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Following is a speech by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph W P Wong at the opening of the third APEC HRD Ministerial Meeting in Washington yesterday (Thursday):

Madam Chairperson, fellow Secretaries, distinguished APEC delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

Let me begin by thanking the Government of the United States of America for hosting this third APEC HRD Ministerial Meeting.

The central theme of our deliberations at this Ministerial meeting is "HRD Challenges and Opportunities in the New Millennium - Addressing the Impacts of the Regional Financial Crisis". Like many economies in the region, Hong Kong has not been spared by the crisis. So I like to share with APEC member economies our experiences in dealing with the immediate unemployment problem and in making preparations for the eventual economic recovery and renewed growth in the region.

Tackling the unemployment problem

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A direct consequence of the economic downturn is an unprecedented surge in unemployment, which rose from a low level of 2.2 per cent before the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 to over six per cent in recent months, which means that some 200,000 people in Hong Kong are presently unemployed. To address this problem, we have introduced new initiatives to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of our publicly-funded counseling and job placement services for the unemployed. We have injected substantial resources into our Employees Retraining Board so that it can design appropriate retraining programmes and increase its training capacity. As a result, in the last financial year, some 70,000 persons completed these retraining programmes and many of them found new employment afterwards. We have also set up a Business Start-up Centre offering the necessary facilities and training programmes to help those who wish to start up businesses themselves.

Among the unemployed, we are particularly concerned about young school leavers looking for jobs for the first time. We will launch a massive youth pre-employment training programme later this year, which consists of four basic modules:

* leadership, discipline and team-work;

* job search and interpersonal skills

* computer application; and

* job-specific skills.

As part of the programme, we are working with public and private organisations to provide on-the-job training or attachments for these young people. We are also working closely with voluntary agencies, community groups and youth service organisations. We see this programme not simply as a government project but more as a collective community effort. I understand that many other APEC economies are facing similar youth unemployment problems and I look forward to an exchange of ideas and experiences during this meeting

Investing in Education

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There are now positive signs that the Hong Kong economy, like other economies in the region, is gradually recovering from the regional crisis. Our latest unemployment figure has registered a decline for the first time in the past 21 months. And we have been taking a number of measures to ensure that Hong Kong will be better positioned to take full advantage of new opportunities. To start with, we have continued to invest heavily in education which, we believe, provides a solid basis for sustained economic development in any place. Thus within a deficit budget for the coming year 1999-2000, the Hong Kong SAR Government will increase spending on education by eight per cent overall, and 11 per cent in school education.

Manpower planning

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Apart from providing our young people with the basic generic skills in schools and universities, we are also focusing on the specific manpower and training needs in those areas which reflect Hong Kong's traditional strengths or growth potentials. We have completed a manpower study on the travel and tourism industry, and a similar study on the information technology sector is nearing completion.

Information Technology

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These studies will help us identify the strengths and weaknesses in our present provision of manpower training. For example, we already know we need to build up a larger pool of professionals in the area of information technology. At the same time, the development and application of information technology plays an increasingly important role in developing our human resources in a knowledge-based information abundant world. We have already committed huge resources in applying information technology in our schools, our universities, our training institutes and in building up an IT-friendly business environment. We have programmes to also train and retrain our community in applying the latest information technology in the workplace. We will continue to do more in this direction.

Conclusion

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Madam Chairperson, the APEC Human Resources Development Ministerial Meeting has a vital role to play in meeting the primary objective of APEC which is economic co-operation and growth within the region. I believe we should put in hand an action plan which will highlight the importance of the social and human aspects of economic development, and the needd to address the concerns of the most vulnerable groups of our community and the action plan should incorporate specific projects and programmes which will draw on the best practices in individual economies and on the appropriate advice from business and labour as well as from international organisations.

Once again, I should like to thank our host, the United States of America, for the hospitality in arranging this meeting, as well as to all those who have contributed to the discussion. I am sure that we will all benefit from this meeting and I will return to Hong Kong a little wiser than before.

Thank you.

End/Friday, July 30, 1999

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