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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, on welfare arrangements for new arrivals today (January 18):
Reporter:... dual residency, how is this going to affect...
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: The Secretary for Security has already explained yesterday, so I am not going to comment on that. No matter what, it would take time for the whole thing to materialise. But I would like to stress that if looking at the latest development, for example, if you look at the number of applications for social security from new arrivals, the number has not been increasing rapidly. In fact, it has been very, very steady. Let's just look at, for example, Comprehensive Social Security Allowance (CSSA), despite the fact that the Court of Final Appeal has ruled that it is not constitutional to require new arrivals to wait for seven years to apply for CSSA, in the last year or so the number of new applications has not been significant. In fact, it has been staying at around 10 to 15 applications per day lately. So it really shows that many of the new arrivals have been accustomed to Hong Kong and if they have work they... and so on.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Sunday, January 18, 2015
Issued at HKT 14:48
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