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The Financial Secretary, Mr Donald Tsang, said after chairing the 15th meeting of the Task Force on Employment today (Friday) that many of the initiatives contained in the Chief Executive's 1999 Policy Address would create new job opportunities.

"In particular, the various initiatives and investment in environmental improvement will induce the development of supporting industries, which will bring about many new job and business opportunities," Mr Tsang said.

"Attention to waste separation and energy efficiency can also create employment opportunities for low-skilled workers," he added.

Other measures, including the doubling of the amount of guarantee for loans provided under the Special Finance Scheme for SMEs, the setting up of the $5 billion Innovation and Technology Fund and the establishment of the Applied Science and Technology Research Institute on mid-stream research, will also contribute to a favourable business environment leading to the creation of new jobs.

An estimated total of 46,000 jobs will be created in the next 15th months as a result of major infrastructural projects and other public works programme items. Projects that will be launched shortly include the KCR East Rail Extension to Ma On Shan and Tsim Sha Tsui, the Lok Ma Chau spur line and the Science park at Pak Shek Kok. In addition to these 46,000 jobs, another 19,000 new job opportunities are expected to be created in the next 15th months by other major government initiatives.

At the meeting, members were informed of the Government's latest initiative to provide, through the former Industrial Support Fund, a one-off funding of $14 million to upgrade and expand the equipment for a course offered by the City University of Hong Kong to produce 750 professionally trained 3D computer animators in the next two and a half years.

"The funding support will help nurture a critical mass of professionally trained 3D computer animators to support the development of the local Digital content development (DCD) industry. The availability of a large number of trained IT professionals in the field will in turn attract more 3D animation orders to be placed in Hong Kong from around the world, and will contribute towards the development of Hong Kong into a major regional centre for multimedia-based information and entertainment services in a significant way," Mr Tsang remarked.

The meeting also reviewed the recently launched Youth Pre-employment Training Programme.

"Feedback on the Programme has been very positive. The trainees generally are highly motivated and willing to learn. Trainers have reported significant improvements in the attitude and confidence of trainees after receiving training," Mr Tsang noted.

The first batch of training courses commenced on September 20. Up to the end of September, 26 courses have been held and over 500 trainees have completed these courses.

The workplace attachment phase of the Programme will start in late October. So far, about 12,100 workplace attachment places have been secured from 511 organisations. These attachment offers involve work in various sectors including social and personal services, government, restaurants, finance, insurance, real estate and business services, transport, storage and communications, manufacturing, wholesale and retail, hotels, construction, etc.

Employment services provided by the Labour Department continue to achieve good results. In September, the Department has secured 14,000 vacancies - the highest figure in 16 months and a 31 per cent up over the same period last year. In the same month, the Department successfully found jobs for over 4,200 jobs seekers, which is the highest number of successful placements in 14 months.

To further upgrade its employment services, the Labour Department will undertake a series of new initiatives in the coming year.

The Department will revamp the Job Matching Programme by introducing group counselling and core skills training workshop to complement individual counselling. To maximise manpower utilisation in the construction industry, it will develop a dedicated webpage for the construction industry so as to improve the information flow on job vacancies and job seekers in the industry. It will also revamp the Careers Advisory Service to render more focused and effective career advisory service to young people.

End/Friday, October 8, 1999

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