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Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at a media stand-up after attending a radio phone-in programme this morning (October 17):
Reporter: Mr Cheung, do you have any target, for example, to what extent for the waiting time to shorten after increasing the elderly home places?
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: We hope that through the novel multi-pronged approach, we should be able to reduce the waiting time but much depends on the number of places that we can secure, for example the number of places that we can buy, the number of places that we can convert at the end of the day. All these we will reveal in the context of the Budget, upcoming Budget.
Reporter: Many people still think there are not enough concrete measures, for example some financial supports, in the Policy Address for the grassroots or for the unemployed, what do you have to say to that?
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: For the unemployed, the Policy Address has set out a strategic mission on two fronts. First of all, the Labour Department, Social Welfare Department and Employees Retraining Board, will get together and provide a one-stop training and employment service centre on a pilot basis in Tin Shui Wai. Our objective is to integrate, streamline and enhance the service to provide customised service for the unemployed, particularly from the moment you go into the centre, obtain service, job matching, counseling, training, to post-employment service, skills upgrading. This, in the long term, will benefit Hong Kong's manpower development. This is an important policy measure, unprecedented. Also, in view of the peculiar nature of retail trade, a lot of jobs, vacancies with no takers, and also very rapid turnover, we will provide a one-stop recruitment centre, particularly targeted towards the retail trade, following the successful example of catering trade which we started earlier. So all these are very important initiatives. And in the meantime of course we've got three major programmes already in full swing, Youth Pre-employment Training Programme, Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme, they've been actually going on very well, and also the University Graduates Internship Programme is already in full swing.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, October 17, 2009
Issued at HKT 13:46
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