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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, to a question by the Hon David Li on employment of Mainland arrivals in the Legislative Council today (December 19):
Question:
Regarding Mainland arrivals holding One-way Permits (ˇ§OWPsˇ¨) under the daily quota of 150 persons, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the total number of arrivals who entered Hong Kong for settlement under the OWP Scheme between January 1, 2003 and the present;
(b) whether it tracks the employment of arrivals under the OWP Scheme as a distinct group and, if so, how their unemployment rates for the past four quarters compare with the overall unemployment rates for the corresponding periods;
(c) of the total number of arrivals under the OWP Scheme who enrolled in government-funded training and retraining programmes in the past five years; and
(d) whether it has assessed the effectiveness of the various training and retraining programmes in assisting arrivals under the OWP Scheme in securing employment; and, if so, of the results?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) According to the Census and Statistics Department, about 229200 One-way Permit (OWP) holders entered Hong Kong during the period between January 1, 2003 and October 31, 2007.
(b) The Administration does not keep track of the employment situation of OWP holders.
(c) During the five-year period from 2002-03 to 2006-07, about 74100 training places provided under the Employees Retraining Scheme of the Employees Retraining Board were taken up by new arrivals from the Mainland who had resided in Hong Kong for less than seven years.
Other government-funded training programmes, including those organised by the Labour Department for different groups (e.g. the middle-aged and young people aged 15ˇV24), courses run by the Vocational Training Council and those organised under the Skills Upgrading Scheme, do not make any distinction as to whether a trainee is a new arrival from the Mainland. Therefore, we have no separate statistics on the enrolment of new arrivals from the Mainland for these training programmes.
(d) Review results and experience have shown that these programmes have been generally effective in meeting their respective objectives, which include enhancing the vocational skills of the trainees and helping them secure employment or pursue further study. However, no separate assessment has been made on the basis of the duration of residence of the trainees.
Ends/Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Issued at HKT 11:31
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