MR CHAN KIN-POR (in Cantonese): Thank you, Deputy President. Various trades and industries in Hong Kong have experienced manpower shortages since society began to resume normalcy. In particular, the shortage of low-skilled workers is the most acute, which sees a significant drop of 160 000 workers compared to their workforce before the outbreak of the pandemic. Hong Kong’s economic development will definitely be affected if we let the problem get worse. In this connection, the Government has decided to introduce labour importation schemes targeting at the construction and transport sectors while enhancing the Supplementary Labour Scheme. In the meantime, the Government has also enhanced its training and employment services, including the plan to increase the maximum monthly amount of retraining allowance. I would like to thank Mr CHAU Siu-chung for moving this motion today, so that Members may discuss ways to unleash the potential local labour force.
At present, Hong Kong’s unemployment rate stands at 3%, which has reached an extremely low level. In reality, however, many people in Hong Kong choose not to work, and the Government should find ways to unleash the potential labour force from these people. It is pointed out in some studies that most grass-roots women in Hong Kong are not working and would rather stay home to take care of their children since their earnings are not enough to cover the expenses on hiring helpers to look after their children. Furthermore, Hong Kong is about to face a retirement peak, with an increased number of better-off people choosing to retire early under the impact of the pandemic recently. And there are also, of course, those who are dissatisfied with the underpaid grass-roots jobs. Perhaps they have the support of family members, or they would rather receive social welfare benefits than work. What the Government should do is to consider offering help or incentives to encourage these people to rejoin the labour market.
It is noteworthy that the number of holders of One-Way Permit (“OWP”) coming to Hong Kong has dropped drastically. In fact, OWP holders are among the major sources of grass-roots workers in Hong Kong and more than a million of them have come to Hong Kong since the return of Hong Kong to the motherland, contributing a lot to our city. Yet, given the Mainland’s steadily improving living standard and the discrimination against new migrants by some Hong Kong people, many OWP holders do not want to come to Hong Kong. Figures show that 57 000 OWP holders came to Hong Kong in 2016, but the number has been on the decline year on year since then, with only 18 000 people coming to Hong Kong last year. This trend has a direct impact on labour supply and is probably one of the main causes of labour shortage in Hong Kong, which is worthy of study by the Government.
In finding ways to encourage people to rejoin the labour market, the Government must accord particular significance to retraining. I have to, in the first place, acknowledge the contribution made by the Employees Retraining Board (“ERB”) in the past. Nevertheless, change is inevitable as retraining must be refined to suit trainees’ needs perfectly. As shown in the the Director of Audit’s Report released in 2020, less than 60% of the trainees of over 70% of the placement-tied courses managed to gain entry to the relevant industries upon completion of retraining. This tells us that certain retraining efforts were not quite effective and many trainees could not apply what they had learned in work. Retraining used to focus on helping the unemployed to switch occupation, and nowadays, we have every reason to consider retraining a workforce that suits the market needs. The Government is now planning to increase the monthly retraining allowance from $5,800 to $8,000, which sounds really attractive. This is exactly the right timing for putting forth more reforms or incentives to enhance the precision of retraining programmes in order to avoid mismatch.
Besides, more than 60% of the ERB trainees have enrolled in half-day non-placement-tied courses, and due to the lack of actual performance indicators over the years, the information on the employment situation of ERB trainees, such as whether trainees’ skills were upgraded and whether they could apply the knowledge they learned in work, is unavailable except for the results obtained in some simple questionnaires. Given the unavailabiliity of detailed information, which indeed remains a mystery, it is difficult for improvements to be made by the authorities and almost not possible for people outside of ERB to monitor the situation. And so, the Bureau should conduct more precise, focused surveys even for half-day courses.
In the face of the ever-changing labour supply and economic environment, Deputy President, ERB has a significant role to play as an executive body. The Government must therefore make an all-out effort to supervise and provide assistance as appropriate. It may consider setting up a dedicated cross-departmental steering committee for the formulation of more precise training plans together with a performance evaluation framework.
Thank you, Deputy President.