Hong Kong will have limited input of labor into the construction industry
On June 13th, Xinhua News Agency reported that the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Li Jiachao, stated in a meeting with the media before attending the executive meeting that in order to address the issue of labor shortage, Hong Kong will have a limited number of imported workers.
Li Jiachao stated that Hong Kong society has fully resumed normalcy and the market has returned to prosperity. Multiple industries, especially some labor-intensive industries and occupations, are experiencing varying degrees of labor shortages. The shortage of labor has caused problems in the operation of the industry, affecting the quality and quantity of services provided by society to the citizens, and also affecting the overall economic development and competitiveness of Hong Kong.
He said that the general principle of policy response is to protect the interests of local workers. Firstly, priority should be given to local labor employment, and imported labor should only be targeted at industries with obvious manpower shortages to address the urgent shortage of manpower in related industries; Secondly, it is necessary to ensure the wage income of local workers, and the wages of input workers cannot be lower than the median wage of relevant positions.
Li Jiachao said that the main focus should be on cultivating and increasing local labor, and introducing foreign labor is an auxiliary and non permanent measure. The SAR government will continue to strengthen vocational education and training, focus on training local workers, attract workers to re-enter the labor market, and take diverse measures to reduce manpower shortages.
Subsequently, the SAR government announced the plan for importing labor into the construction and transportation industries. According to the arrangement, employers in the construction and transportation industries are allowed to apply for import labor quotas if they meet the specified criteria. The quota limit for two industries to input labor plans is a total of 20000, with construction accounting for 12000 and transportation accounting for 8000.
In addition, the SAR government has announced the optimization of the existing "Supplementary Labor Plan", allowing 26 non skilled or low skilled jobs, including waiters, cashiers, and salespeople, to apply for imported labor for a period of two years.