Press Release

 

 

Employment during HK Disneyland Phase I construction

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In response to press enquiries concerning a report in a Chinese daily regarding the employment figures during the construction of Phase I of the Hong Kong Disneyland and related infrastructure works, a Government spokesman issued the following clarifications:

In the set of "Backgrounder" pamphlets and publicity materials distributed to the media on November 2, the figures on construction employment were already quoted in "man-years". Our general releases referred to "jobs" for the sake of simplicity, but we did point out in the "Backgrounder" pamphlets that the "16,000 jobs" were estimated in terms of "man-years".

In presenting the details of the Disneyland project to the Legislative Council, we have used the more precise description of "man-years" for the construction employment involved.

For the construction period up to Phase I opening (2000-2004), the construction employment in "man-years" is estimated at around 10 000 for the land formation and infrastructure construction, and around

6 000 for the erection of facilities at the theme park.

It is the nature of operation of the construction industry that the numbers, types and duration of jobs vary greatly between different categories of construction projects, and at different stages of construction even within each project. Given such diversities, the respective construction employment is better measured in terms of "man-years". The mode of employment in construction projects in fact differs from that in factories, offices or service entities, in that the latter employment relates to going business concerns and hence is of a continuing nature.

As such, it is incorrect to infer that the number of construction jobs is only 3 200, by just dividing the 16 000 man-years by the full construction period of 5 years.

The number of new jobs that are expected to be created directly and indirectly by the theme park, at around 18 400 on its opening rising to around 35 800 at Phase I capacity, will be jobs of continuing nature.

End/Thursday, November 4, 1999

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