Opening the door to talent
As early as 2001, the government estimated that there would be a shortage of 117,000 workers with post-secondary and degree education. It therefore came as no surprise when our business leaders recently cited their concern about the worsening shortage of qualified talent. We must attract more talent now to fill these vacancies and realise the full potential of our economy.
The importance of this has been highlighted in nearly every Policy Address since 1997. Again, in this year's address, the government said it was still 'working on a strategy to attract talented people from the mainland and overseas'.
It went on to say: 'We will take forward this plan this year.' But it did not explain what its strategy would be. Surely, it is economic expansion - what we need now is to implement a plan.
There seems to be a reluctance to handle this political hot potato. But is the potato really so hot? To deal with this aspect of immigration we need to implement a policy which is driven by economic factors. The principal officials responsible for this aspect should be those who are responsible for the economy, not security. Our lawmakers must realise that far from taking jobs away from people, an expanding economy will provide work for the unemployed. A skilled professional needs people around him or her for support. We need to be proactive, not only eliminating the shortage of skills but also building a pool of labour from which employers can readily recruit.
Realising the sensitivity of this subject, other places have found a way to get round the problem. One solution, a points system, is employed with notable success by countries such as New Zealand, Australia and Canada, which share our sensitivities about opening the floodgates of immigration. Their systems permit high levels of control over the number and type of immigrants and therefore the pursuit of social, human-resource and other policy objectives. They enable the employer country to set human-resource priorities.
A points system has a built-in flexibility, allowing the authorities to vary the total required for entry, and the points allocated to criteria within it. This gives officials the ability to adapt the profile of people who will be admitted in terms of their skills, language, education, family dependants and so on. This is not the case with our existing employer-driven system. Those with the required number of points will be the people we most need.
They should be granted a visa; job-analysis figures show that the positions are out there, and those with the right points would readily find employment - if they do not, after one year their visa would not be renewed.
The government's website, often the first point of access to the immigration system, should be user-friendly, imparting a welcoming message which positively sells Hong Kong. Is ours?
Apart from their direct input into the economy, new immigrants - by creating employment opportunities - will help redress the balance to support an ageing population. They will also continue to build the culturally and linguistically diverse society of which we are so proud.
Sir David Akers-Jones, a former chief secretary, is president of the Business and Professionals Federation of Hong Kong
