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Following is a question by the Hon Ambrose Lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph W P Wong, in the Legislative Council today (May 17):

Question:

It has been reported that some university students who will be graduating from medical schools this year plan to practise in Singapore as they have not been able to secure suitable jobs in public hospitals in Hong Kong. Moreover, both the starting salaries and the number of posts available for graduates in other professional disciplines (such as law, surveying, accounting and engineering) have been reducing year by year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of the measures and policies currently in place to ensure a balance in manpower supply and demand in the various professions?

Reply:

Madame President,

The Government endeavours to ensure that the manpower supply, in terms of both quantity and quality, matches the needs of our society as far as possible.

It should be noted that there are intrinsic limitations in matching manpower demand and supply at any given point in time as Hong Kong is a free and dynamic economy. Furthermore, there are many factors affecting the employment of graduates in a particular field, for example, the graduates' choice of jobs and an employer's selection of candidates. Against this background, the following paragraphs describe the Government's efforts to match supply with demand in various professions.

On the demand side, we monitor the demand for professionals in the public and private sectors through consultation with relevant bureaux/departments and professional bodies. The Government and various training agencies also carry out studies from time to time to assess the manpower requirements in different sectors. For instance, a study on IT manpower and training needs was completed in February this year. We also keep track of employment situations of fresh graduates of different disciplines through the annual Graduates Employment Surveys conducted by individual higher education institutions.

Based on the information on manpower demand in various professions, the Government will discuss with the University Grants Committee (UGC) and other manpower training organisations on suitable training provision of different disciplines. For the UGC institutions, this is mainly done in the context of these institutions' triennial academic plans. In the process, we draw reference to the current manpower demand in the relevant fields as well as to the projected demand in the medium to long term.

End/Wednesday, May 17, 2000

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