MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): Deputy President, as the saying goes, "past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide to the future". In the course of history, China suffered greatly because of the Japanese invasions. The whole nation had engaged in resistance for many years and thanks to the courageous resistance of the people, it finally gained victory over Japan's militarism. In Hong Kong, the Japanese army invaded the territory in 1941, and following the defeat of the defence army, Hong Kong people suffered great hardship for three years and eight months. People of the older generation would not forget such shame. In 2015, the State Council designated 3 September as a holiday. In the same year, the Legislative Council also passed a bill to designate an additional holiday on a one-off basis to mark the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, so as to commemorate the War of Resistance and reiterate China's stance of opposing any war of aggression. While this day has a commemorative meaning, the proposed to designate this day as a statutory holiday certainly requires careful consideration.

Deputy President, from the perspective or position of the people, having an additional holiday is certainly good as they can have one more rest day and can spend more time with their families. From the perspective of the travel industry, wage earners will naturally make use of the additional holiday and plan for various outbound tours, which in turn will benefit the industry. Nevertheless, as a Member of the Legislative Council, I have to consider the matter in a holistic and objective manner and analyse whether having one additional holiday or aligning statutory holidays with general holidays, as proposed by some Members, will bring more advantages or disadvantages. When the Administration reviews its holiday policy, it has to examine whether the existing policy is appropriate and in what ways the increase in the number of holidays will affect various trades and the economy before making any reasonable adjustment. The Secretary has very clearly told us some of the problems concerned.

The current holiday system of Hong Kong, originated from the system in 1960s when Hong Kong was under British rule, has continued all along. Holidays in Hong Kong are categorized into statutory holidays and general holidays mainly because bank holidays in the old days (now called general holidays) could not benefit blue-collar workers. The society thought that it was unfair. To alleviate social grievances, an additional statutory holiday, i.e. Labour Day, was designated. According to the information of the Labour Department, when compared with our neigbouring economies which similarly have statutory holidays, Thailand has 13 days of holiday, which tops the list; Hong Kong comes second with 12 days. In places which only have general holidays, such as Mainland China and Singapore, employees are only entitled to 11 days of holidays, which are fewer than the number of statutory holidays in Hong Kong. The information shows that holiday entitlement of Hong Kong is in fact not inferior to our neighbouring countries or regions.

Deputy President, the economy of Hong Kong is mainly driven by the service industries, which contributed to more than 90% of our GDP. According to a paper submitted by the Government to the Legislative Council in 2015, after designating an additional statutory holiday, if employers employed replacement workers to relieve the resulting labour shortage, they had to bear additional costs of $370 million as a whole. Given that inflation rate, rent and wages have increased in recent years, the costs incurred will be even higher now. The service industries will bear the brunt, and the greatest impact will be sustained by tourism-related businesses such as retail trades, hotels and catering.

According to the information of the Census and Statistics Department, there are a total of 630 000 employees in the three above mentioned businesses, the majority of which are grass-roots workers. Whenever there is any change to our labour holiday policy, e.g. increasing the number of statutory holidays as proposed in the original motion and some of the amendments, it will have a tremendous effect on the labour-intensive trades. The latest unemployment rate of 2.8% in Hong Kong shows that our economy is close to full employment. Various trades and industries have indicated the difficulties and even inability to recruit staff, particularly micro, small and medium enterprises ("MSMEs") as the benefits and remunerations offered are not as good as that of big enterprises. Fundamentally, importation of labour should be one way to resolve labour shortage, but whenever such a proposal is put forward, Members of the Legislative Council, including those from the labour sector, will often raise strong opposition, thus discouraging the Government from actively implementing the proposal. If the situation continues, I expect that manpower shortage in the labour market will remain unresolved for a very long time.

Since enterprises have expressed difficulties and even inability to recruit staff, if an employee is on leave, it will not be easy for MSMEs to find a replacement, even if higher wages are offered. Thus, before the Government introduces any measures to relieve labour shortage or import labour, arbitrarily increasing the number of statutory holidays will harm MSMEs, reduce plans of service enhancement by the industries to empty talk, weaken Hong Kong's competitiveness in the region and result in monopolization of consortia in the long term. In the end, members of the public and ordinary employees will suffer.

Deputy President, labour rights and benefits in Hong Kong have been gradually improving in recent years. Examples include extension of statutory paternity leave to five days which will commence in the middle of this month, extension of statutory maternity leave to 14 weeks and commencement of a legislative exercise this year for abolishing the offsetting mechanism of the Mandatory Provident Fund System. Considering the uncertain economic situations ahead, I hope the Government will not add to the misfortunes of MSMEs. The Government should comprehensively review the issue of statutory holidays and general holidays and strike a balance between the interests of employers and that of employees before making a wise decision.

Deputy President, with these remarks, I oppose the original motion and all the amendments.