Motion of Thanks - Poverty Alleviation, Welfare, Population Policy, Education and Manpower (2015/02/12)

President, the Policy Address this year has put forward five major measures in relation to the population policy, in order to address the new challenges brought by demographic changes. Particularly, to address the problem of labour shortage, the Policy Address encourages the extension of retirement age and this, I welcome. In Hong Kong, there is currently no statutory retirement age, and to show its sincerity, the Government has taken the lead to extend the retirement age to 65 for some civil servants. However, relying on the Government alone for implementation of this measure will achieve only a limited effect. The key lies in encouraging enterprises to follow suit. I suggest that tax concessions can be provided as an incentive for employers to extend the retirement age of their employees according to the situation, and at the same time, co-operation can be fostered with non-profit-making organizations to provide employment support and training services for the elderly. This can further unleash the potential of the local labour force while alleviating the burden on the Government in providing welfare benefits for the elderly and better still, increasing tax revenue. 

To enable students to practise what they have learnt, the Policy Address proposes to further promote vocational education. This is a policy worthy of implementation. Nowadays, many young people do not have a good understanding of many trades and industries. They are unwilling to join these trades and industries while the parents also have biased views on vocational training. In fact, suitable vocational training can be of great help to the career development of young people. For example, the 120 graduates of the Chinese Cuisine Training Institute each year have a placement rate exceeding 90%. These graduates are much sought after by employers and offered a starting salary of more than $10,000, and it is easier for them to secure employment than university graduates in general. Apart from attaching importance to university education, the Government should work in concert with vocational training institutes to further study ways to improve the existing vocational training courses in the light of the labour shortage in different trades and industries, and encourage students who do not stand a high chance of admission to universities to choose to study in vocational training institutes. By learning theories on the one hand and receiving internship training on the other, young people can build up their confidence in joining the relevant industries and this can also allay employers' concern about the lack of experience on the part of these newcomers to the industries. I think this policy is worth promotion. 

In respect of workers' income, the Policy Address proposes that the Statutory Minimum Wage rate be increased to $32.5 per hour. I am very much concerned about the increase in the operational costs in various trades and industries brought by the minimum wage. It will drive up rents and even cause inflation. An excessively high inflation will hit the general public the hardest, especially the frail elderly who do not have an income and who rely on their meagre savings. Therefore, the Government cannot only seek to increase the minimum wage in the face of pressure and even carry out a review annually to the neglect of the operational difficulties of the small and medium enterprises and the inflation problem to be faced by most members of the public. 

Another issue which is more devastating than the minimum wage is standard working hours mentioned in the Policy Address. I think the service sector, especially the tourism industry, will be hit the hardest by standard working hours. As we all know, when visitors travel on a package tour, they certainly expect the escorts or the tour guides to be readily available to provide services to them at all times. Even if an accident occurred in the middle of the night, visitors will definitely seek help from the escort. From the angle of the visitors and escorts, they consider this a normal way of work in service provision. As the escorts or tour guides need to provide service for the visitors anytime, and they are considered to be providing round-the-clock service, so according to judgments made in similar cases in other industries, with the addition of the minimum wage, employers will have to meet extremely exorbitant expenses. Therefore, it is difficult to implement standard working hours in the tourism industry. If we suggest that the tourism industry or certain individual trades and industries be exempted, this would be unfair to other trades and industries. For these reasons, I hope that the Government can think twice and will not introduce standard working hours rashly. Therefore, I resolutely oppose legislating for standard working hours. 

The Policy Address also proposes that consideration be given to further enhancing the Supplementary Labour Scheme and allowing the importation of skilled workers. The policy will be relaxed by allowing the imported workers to work across various public sector works projects, rather than working in only one project under the current requirement. This is to ensure that there will be sufficient construction workers to provide support, in order to guarantee the completion of various infrastructure projects on schedule. This is a pragmatic proposal. I strongly support that the arrangement for importation of foreign workers be appropriately relaxed without affecting the bargaining power of local workers, in order to mitigate the existing problem of not being able to hire workers in the construction industry and some obnoxious industries. This is a pragmatic approach. 

President, the Policy Address this year also mentions that continuous efforts will be made to fine-tune the existing exchange and internship programmes for young people, I support this. The industries in Hong Kong are rather homogenous and young people who graduated from universities may not be able to practise what they have learnt. On the contrary, the Mainland is a huge market where university students can have more options of career development. It is pragmatic of the Government to allocate resources to providing local young people with exchange and internship opportunities on the Mainland. This will enable young people to have more understanding of the actual situation of Mainland organizations and enterprises and hence more choices in the future. Recently, Jack MA of Alibaba has proactively proposed the establishment of a fund to assist young people in Hong Kong to start up businesses. This is proof that we have quite a lot of opportunities. If young people in Hong Kong can gain some better understanding of the Mainland market and broaden their vision and upgrade themselves through platforms in the Mainland or overseas set up with investments by major Mainland enterprises, they would be able to truly go beyond Hong Kong and engage themselves globally.

President, I so submit.