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Developing Logistics
42. South China is a major global manufacturing centre. Hong Kong is an international logistics hub. Our airport has the world's largest international cargo throughput, and our container port is among the busiest in the world. In the face of competition from nearby regions, Hong Kong's logistics industry is making every effort to improve efficiency and provide speedy, reliable and full-scale value-added logistics services so that quality can compensate for cost differentials.
43. Where port services are concerned, we need to continue improving our competitiveness. The Government is assisting this process by working closely with the Mainland authorities in order to develop major cross-boundary linkages between our transport network and those of Guangdong and other Pan-PRD provinces, and to expand the source markets for goods. The Hong Kong section of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor was completed at the end of 2005. The basic works for the Shenzhen section and the boundary crossing facilities at Shekou will be completed by the end of this year. The commissioning of the Corridor will greatly increase the handling capacity of our land boundary crossings. The recently-launched Digital Trade and Transportation Network System will help reduce the cost of information exchange and provide more opportunities for commercial symbiosis.
44. We are working closely with the industry to enhance cost effectiveness. We have proposed a series of measures to attract more vessels to use our port facilities. Such measures include simplifying vessel entry procedures, lowering port charges, and establishing more service anchorages to increase midstream cargo-handling capacity. To meet demand for support services, we will conduct open tenders for suitable sites adjacent to the container terminals. We will continue to promote discussion within the industry with the aim of enhancing the transparency of terminal handling charges.
45. The Airport Authority and the industry concerned are examining the proposed establishment of a gold depository at Hong Kong International Airport. This will help to promote Hong Kong as a logistics hub and gold trading centre. To support this development, we will consider providing a concession in trade declaration charges for gold.
Pooling of Talent
46. In a globalised economy, those places which can pool the most talent are the most successful. We must nurture and attract the best talent to maintain our competitive edge.
47. In order to increase the competitiveness of local talent, we will improve the quality of our formal education and enhance training and retraining with more investment in these areas. Another of our objectives is to attract more undergraduates from outside Hong Kong to study in local tertiary institutions on exchange programmes. Such programmes will give exchange students a deeper understanding of Hong Kong and the Mainland; and, in return, our students on exchange will benefit from the experience of learning and living abroad. Student exchange programmes create a multicultural environment on campus. This will broaden our younger generation's outlook on life, and will help to develop Hong Kong over time as the regional centre for education. The Secretary for Education and Manpower will also consider how to attract more full-time tertiary students from abroad. To produce all-round tertiary students, hostel life is an important part of higher education. In this connection, I propose to provide 1 800 additional hostel places, at a total cost of roughly $350 million. Such an enhancement will benefit both our local students and exchange students by meeting their accommodation needs, and increase our institutions' attractiveness as centres for exchange activities.
48. We must make a greater effort to recruit overseas and Mainland talent who have made a mark in their chosen professions. I am pleased to announce that the Chief Executive in Council has endorsed the introduction in the first half of the year of the "Quality Migrant Scheme" (QMS) to attract such talent. Applicants will be required to meet certain eligibility criteria in respect of, inter alia, academic attainment, professional qualifications and work experience, but without needing to have secured prior employment. The Government will assess applications in accordance with an objective marking scheme. The QMS will have a quota of 1 000 entrants a year. Successful applicants will be allowed to enter Hong Kong and stay for one year, accompanied by their spouses and children. The Secretary for Security will shortly announce further details.
49. Hong Kong's economic development needs to move forward in tandem on many fronts and the pooling of talent is an integral part of this process.
(To be continued)
Ends/Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Issued at HKT 11:35
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