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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the remarks by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, on the latest unemployment statistics at a media stand-up today (March 18):
Reporter: Mr Cheung, what led to the improvements and how about the job-seeking for graduates?
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: The notable improvement in unemployment this time was mainly due to a significant job gain to the tune of actually 7 900 led by the pick-up in overall economic activities - a very important development. In fact, total employment recorded a very significant growth of 8 600 in the previous round. This indicates that the labour market is continuing to revive and that many employers are now in a stronger recruiting mood. This is very important, with more vacancies in the market. Given this relatively positive business sentiment plus the increased demand for labour, I am cautiously optimistic that unemployment will continue to ease in the next couple of months. But beyond that, much depends on two factors: one is the external environment, which is beyond Hong Kong's control; the other one is the pace of our economic growth and the number and speed of jobs to be created: whether they can absorb the new batch of fresh school leavers and graduates in the summer.
Reporter: The survey shows that the median hourly rate is actually less than $20, does it mean that there is an urgent need to speed up the enactment of the minimum wage law?
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: We have got a very clear timetable and road map for enacting the minimum wage law. First of all, our timetable still remains that we hope that the main bill could be enacted before the summer break of LegCo, which is around mid-July, before the end of July. But much depends on the pace of the progress made in the Bills Committee. It is beyond the Administration's control. But we stand ready to cooperate. In fact, we have been speeding up scrutiny in line with the request of the Bills Committee, hopefully to get the bill enacted before summer. This is a very important step. In parallel, the Provisional Minimum Wage Commission is already working in earnest in analysing, studying and scrutinising the data. The Annual Survey findings released today provide a very important basis, indeed much-needed and essential basis, for it to deliberate, analyse and particularly to recommend the initial rate for the Administration to consider before we actually put it to LegCo through a subsidiary legislation in the form of a separate legislative exercise which comes after the main bill has been enacted. So we have got a clear timetable, a clear road map and our aim remains to get the whole thing in place in the first quarter of 2011.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
Ends/Thursday, March 18, 2010
Issued at HKT 20:15
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