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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at the Hong Kong Management Association 2014 Annual Conference today (November 11):
Alfred (Mr Alfred Chan, Council Chairman of the Hong Kong Management Association and Managing Director of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company), Winfried (Mr Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, Conference Organising Committee Chairman and CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club), Ron (Mr Ronald Arculli), distinguished guests and speakers, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to address this high-powered audience and take a strategic look at the important issue of driving Hong Kong's economic growth and maintaining our competitiveness through human capital investment.
Let me first thank the Hong Kong Management Association (HKMA) for organising this conference and bringing together an impressive line-up of expert speakers. This conference provides an ideal and much-needed platform for exchanging ideas on sustaining growth and human capital development amongst our civic leaders and senior corporate executives.
As we know, talent constitutes a key challenge to sustainable economic and social growth. Global economic restructuring has led to an increasingly knowledge-based and innovation-driven economic order. Enterprises, industries, economies and government must know how to best leverage their human capital in order to remain competitive and sustain dynamic growth.
This is particularly so as the world is rapidly ageing. According to the World Health Organization, elderly people are the fastest growing age group worldwide. By 2050, two billion people - or nearly a quarter of mankind - will be aged 60 or above. Hong Kong is no exception and our population is, in fact, fast ageing. At present, Hong Kong's elderly population stands at about 1.07 million, meaning that one in seven Hong Kong people is aged 65 or above. This ratio will rise to a staggering one in three (or 2.56 million elderly people) by 2041. With an ageing population and low fertility rate, our labour force participation rate will fall from 58.8 per cent in 2012 to 49.5 per cent in 2041. Our current labour force of about 3.59 million is expected to peak at 3.71 million in 2018 and then dwindle by 200,000 to 3.51 million in 2035 before resuming modest growth.
In face of the dual challenges of an ageing population and a shrinking labour force, the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) Government is mapping out a comprehensive and forward-looking population policy to ensure that Hong Kong continues to forge ahead and remain competitive in the decades ahead. To achieve this, we must have the human capital, in terms of both quantity and quality, to keep Hong Kong growing, moving ahead and pulsating as Asia's world city. This explains why the current-term Government has embarked on formulating a holistic population policy.
For obvious reasons, nurturing and educating our young people and continuously upgrading our workforce rank high on the Government's population policy agenda. Expenditure on education alone accounts for a significant 21.8 per cent ($67.1 billion) of the Government's annual recurrent expenditure - the lion's share among all policy areas. This underlines the importance that we attach to education, which consists of academic studies, vocational education and training, skills upgrading and life-long learning. We are firmly wedded to the view that education is fundamental to enhancing our human capital, helping our young people realise their potential and promoting social mobility. It is also the best policy tool for tackling poverty.
To solicit public views on the crucial topic of population policy, the Government's Steering Committee on Population Policy launched last October a five-month territory-wide public engagement exercise. Public views canvassed in the consultation were subsequently analysed in an independent report compiled by the University of Hong Kong and released in July this year.
The findings of the report are rather telling. Specifically, many members of the community see the need to improve provision of vocational education and ensure that post-secondary education matches the labour market and social needs. There are also calls for improving education and provision of more university places, as well as additional support for continuing education, the Qualifications Framework and sub-degree courses.
In this respect, I should say that the current-term Government has taken major steps to enhance the employability and overall competitiveness of the local workforce. In January this year, we injected a hefty $15 billion into the Employees Retraining Fund to finance the long-term operation of the Employees Retraining Board. The 2014 Policy Address also announced the establishment of a $1 billion fund to provide long-term support for the development of the Qualifications Framework which seeks to promote life-long learning and skills upgrading.
Besides measures to enhance and improve the quality of our human capital, the Government is working towards expanding our workforce to boost Hong Kong's productivity. These include exploring ways to increase female participation in the labour force and enhancing more flexible retirement practices.
There is a strong body of opinion in favour of increasing female participation in the labour force as one of the means to augment Hong Kong's manpower supply. The Government is aware of this and will step up efforts in enhancing child care, elderly care, after-school support services and retraining courses targeting the needs of women and offering more female homemakers and caregivers the flexibility of returning to work. To allow fathers of newborns more time to attend to their wives and other family needs arising from childbirth, we have proposed a statutory three-day paid paternity leave. We hope that the relevant bill, currently before the Legislative Council, can be enacted before long.
In unleashing the potential of the existing population, extending the retirement age of the working population is seen by many as a viable option. As the largest employer in Hong Kong, the Government proposes to adopt a higher retirement age for new recruits to the civil service from a future date. This will be an important step forward and could have a positive demonstration effect on organisations in the public, subvented and private sectors.
Apart from making the best of our "young olds" and early retirees, we should also fully tap the potential of the ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and new arrivals from the Mainland. At the same time, we should attract more talents and professionals from the Mainland and overseas to fuel Hong Kong's economic growth. We should also consider streamlining the existing mechanism for importing labour to meet proven local manpower shortage and mismatch without affecting the well-being and employment opportunities of local workers.
To prepare Hong Kong for the human capital challenges of the 21st century, we need to build a diversified, competitive and versatile workforce to meet fast changing economic and market needs. In this respect, the Government as well as corporate and individual employers must join hands and go for a people-oriented approach. We should proactively adopt age, gender, family, disability and race friendly recruitment policies and flexible working arrangements as well as fostering an inclusive work culture. In fact, friendly employment practices and ensuring an optimum work-life balance are critical success factors in recruiting, retaining and re-energising employees.
In particular, employers should devise strategies to best leverage the talents of the younger generation. As our generations X, Y and Z are better educated, more technology savvy, more individualistic and more creative, it is important for enterprises to understand how best to work with them and realise their potential. Early engagement by employers through internship, mentorship and even shadowing opportunities would enable our youngsters to broaden their horizons and have an early taste of the world of work. It would whet their appetite, fire their imagination and ignite their passion. It would also enable employers to identify promising new blood for future grooming. In short, this would be an all-win recipe. I would like to appeal to employers at large to take in more interns and demonstrate that they do care about the future and career development of our younger generation. This is particularly important as recent events clearly show that our young people are yearning for greater social mobility.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is only through a multi-pronged approach and a change in mindset, coupled with pragmatism, creativity and a strong sense of commitment to Hong Kong, that we can win the human capital challenge. In the years ahead, the Government will strive on all fronts to enhance the competitiveness, versatility and resilience of our workforce in order to secure Hong Kong's position as Asia's world city. In achieving this goal, we count on the support and collaboration of the corporate sector.
Let me conclude by congratulating the HKMA once again for staging this important conference. I am sure that you will all come away better equipped and much wiser. Thank you.
Ends/Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Issued at HKT 12:04
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