Lawmakers Divided On Expanding Talent List

Lawmakers on Tuesday expressed mixed views on the government's decision to expand its talent list to lure more non-local professionals.

Officials announced earlier in the day that the talent list will be expanded from the current 13 job types to 51, covering professions under industries like healthcare services, development and construction.

Unionist lawmaker Lam Chun-sing said the expansion of the talent list is way too wide, and may affect the prospect of local workers.

"Has the government done any consultations in different industries to study different industries' situations... so that we can more accurately import foreign professionals and talent?" he questioned.

"In some industries, in fact, the labour shortage situation is not so serious, so we're worried that it's difficult for the government to strike a balance between the importation of professionals and talents, and the local labour employment priority."

But Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape sector lawmaker Tony Tse said it’s high time that the government moves to ease labour shortage in the construction industry.

He said the next issue that needs to be addressed is where to house the imported workers.

"Of course Hong Kong is short of housing," Tse said.

"Probably the imported labour may be confined to certain mega projects... and the location of such projects may be close to the Greater Bay Area so that... the provision of housing can be in Greater Bay Area cities, close to Hong Kong."