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Following is the translation of the speech delivered by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, at the Labour Day Reception held at Government House today (May 1):
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome to the Labour Day Reception of the SAR Government.
Hong Kong is facing the challenges of global economic cyclical adjustment and internal economic restructuring. There have been recently signs of improvement in the external economy and this will help revive our economy and ease unemployment. The restructuring will still go on and we need to move to the knowledge economy and high value-added services to maintain competitiveness and add new momentum to our economy. Economic restructuring, as experienced in foreign countries, will take some time and our unemployment rate will remain relatively high for a while.
The Government fully understands the difficulties posed by economic restructuring to employees, especially low-skilled workers. We will do our best to ensure that creation of job opportunities comes first in our policy initiatives. In my Policy Address last year and in this year's Budget Speech delivered by the Financial Secretary, we introduced various measures to create as many posts as we can as interim relief. On the front of tourism, with the support of the Central Government, the Mainland authorities are working to relax restrictions on Mainland residents travelling to Hong Kong. In the first two months this year, the number of Mainland visitors to Hong Kong increased by almost 30% over the same period last year, giving a boost to our hospitality, travel and retail sectors. We will do more to attract foreign investments and further promote the development of tourism, logistics, financial services, producer and professional services as well as local community economies. This shall stimulate economic growth and arrest the rising unemployment. For those who genuinely cannot cope with the economic restructuring, we have a social safety net in place to take care of their basic needs of life.
To help people upgrade the skills required for employment, we will strengthen vocational training and retraining. In this regard, there are quite a number of views that the existing government training and retraining providers overlap in purviews and fail to meet the needs of the market and the labour sector. The Education and Manpower Bureau has reviewed the issue and decided to set up a Manpower Development Committee. This Committee will help us develop and implement initiatives to streamline the structure, enhance effectiveness, and ensure that the training and retraining services provided will cater to the needs of the market and the labour sector. We will also step up enforcement actions against illegal workers to safeguard the employment opportunities of local workers.
In the long run, the biggest issue confronting with our economic restructuring is manpower mismatch, which can only be redressed through upgrading the calibre of our human capital. We spare no efforts to implement education reforms, improve education quality and increase places for tertiary education. Also, we must get in place a population policy. We are putting in perspective immigration figures, education and manpower needs, as well as the direction of our future economic development to formulate a population policy that can sustain the long-term development of Hong Kong and sharpen our competitive edge.
It requires the commitment of the community as a whole to embrace economic restructuring. We must adopt new thinking, especially in encouraging enterprises to better communicate with their employees to build up a partnership of sincere cooperation to achieve mutual benefits. Employees are the most important asset to aspiring enterprises. With good communication and harmonious relations, employers and employees can join in one mind to come through these challenges.
I know there are encouraging examples of employers and employees working together to tide over adversities. A large renowned enterprise in Hong Kong earned employees' cooperation in implementing efficiency enhancement initiatives. Good communication helped employees understand the enterprise's development strategy. They were willing to accept retraining and redeployment arrangements, enabling it to move on to a new mode of operation with enhanced competitiveness. Again, a small circuit board manufacturer and its employees maintained good communication and joined in one heart to have successfully controlled cost and improved quality of products to meet market changes. They exemplify how enterprises push out of the doldrums through cooperation with their employees.
Solidarity and cooperation manifest their significance at times of hardship. Today, the "May First" International Labour Day, is dedicated to all members of the labour force for their remarkable contributions towards social evolution and economic advancement. Undaunted in the past economic doldrums, Hong Kong has relied on our assiduous workforce to emerge even stronger. Here I extend once and again my respect to the labour sector of Hong Kong. It takes time to overcome the adversities of our economic restructuring, while maintaining harmonious labour relations is essential to the process. Endowed with the unique strengths of having the Mainland as our hinterland and extensive links to all corners of the globe, we have excellent infrastructure, a robust legal system, a highly efficient government and a business-friendly environment. Rapid economic development of the country creates tremendous opportunities for Hong Kong. We must harness these strengths and with the full support of the Central Government, we will be absolutely capable of rising to these challenges. With confidence in ourselves, resolve and solidarity, we will scale to new heights.
Thank you.
End/Wednesday, May 1, 2002
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