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Following is the transcript (English portion) of a media session by the Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang, on the latest unemployment and underemployment figures this (October 19) afternoon at Central Government Offices:

Financial Secretary: The unemployment situation remains stable. In the third quarter of this year, the unemployment rate remained at 6.8%. Underemployment went down slightly to 3.2%. The number of people who were unemployed remained at 249,000 and those who were underemployed reduced by 5,000 to 113,000. There were a few sectors that posted significant improvements (in unemployment situation) including construction, insurance and communications. I remain of the view that the employment situation, in the context of the economic transformation, remains a challenge for us and we will continue to work harder with industries as well as various sectors of our community in order to improve the employment situation. Thank you very much.

Reporter: Are you disappointed with the latest job figure? You said before that...to go down but why is it taking so long? Is the Government doing everything it can?

Financial Secretary: I remain of the view that it is of course up to the private sector to create job opportunities, and the Government's role is to facilitate the market to create additional jobs. Of course, I would like to see the unemployment rate go down faster and sharper. But we are going through a very challenging period of economic transformation as well as employment shifts. So the future does look challenging, but we still remain cautious, but somewhat optimistic, that in the future because of an improving economy we will see some improvement in the unemployment situation in the medium term.

Reporter: Are you disappointed with the 6.8% and how low would you like to see that...?

Financial Secretary: I will be a happy man when I see full employment. I will do my best and I will ensure that the Government will do our best to work with various sectors of the community in order to improve the employment situation.

Reporter: Do you think there is a possibility that unemployment rate could actually go higher because of external volatility?

Financial secretary: There is always a possibility that unemployment rate can go down as well as up. It has consistently gone down for nearly the whole year. I remain of the view that the general improvement in the economic situation will eventually translate into jobs but I am not in a position to forecast when that will happen or in what magnitude would that happen.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Tuesday, October 19, 2004

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