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SLW: Human capital a valuable asset for Hong Kong
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     The Government attaches great importance to promoting the sustainable development of human capital in the face of increasingly fierce global competition and a fast-changing world, the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, noted today (December 9).

     Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 30th Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management Annual Conference "Championing HR Fitness for the Next Decade", Mr Cheung said, "People are the most valuable asset of any society. This is particularly true for Hong Kong, where people are our only natural resources."

     He pointed out that education was one of the most important tools for equipping the workforce. Education takes up 23.4% of the Government's total recurrent expenditure, the largest share among all policy areas.

     Mr Cheung said, "Our heavy investment in education is paying handsome dividends. Two of our 13 universities were ranked among the top 50 in the world in 2010 by the Times Higher Education Supplement, with another two within the top 200.

     "In the QS Asian University Rankings 2010, the University of Hong Kong ranked first, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology second and the Chinese University of Hong Kong came fourth.

     It is noteworthy that some 9,300 Mainland students are studying in our world-class higher education institutions and many of them are top performers at home."

     Apart from nurturing local talent, as an international, pluralistic and open economy, Hong Kong welcomes people with valuable skills, knowledge or experience from all over the world to work and live here.  

     "Over 270,000 talented people and professionals have been admitted since 1997," Mr Cheung said.

     As for the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme introduced in 2006 for talented people with proven ability in any area to apply without first securing an offer of local employment, some 1,700 places have been allotted so far.
 
     To enable those already in the workforce to upgrade themselves and keep pace with the changing demands of the job market, Mr Cheung said that a wide range of training and retraining courses were offered by the Employees Retraining Board, the Vocational Training Council and the Construction Industry Council Training Academy.

     Moreover, a total of $6.2 billion has been injected into the Continuing Education Fund since 2002 to foster continuing education and promote life-long learning of our workforce, benefiting over 540,000 persons so far, he added.

     "In an increasingly competitive global village, neither employers nor employees can afford to stagnate. The Hong Kong SAR Government will continue to play the role of an enabler to develop our human capital and help our workforce scale new heights and embrace new challenges," Mr Cheung concluded.  

Ends/Thursday, December 9, 2010
Issued at HKT 11:48

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