GOVERNOR Chris Patten adopted a conciliatory line on unemployment yesterday, admitting the importation of labour scheme and the growing number of jobless were linked.
Mr Patten told legislators at his monthly question-and-answer session: 'I'm not so naive as to suggest that there is no relationship between the overall level of unemployment in Hong Kong and the importation of workers to Hong Kong.' Last month, Mr Patten told trade unionists the scheme, which allows 25,000 overseas workers to be brought into Hong Kong, was not responsible for the high jobless figure of 78,800 (or 3 per cent). The unionists are adamant the scheme should be scrapped.
Yesterday, Mr Patten was responding to pressure from legislators on what immediate action the Government would take to tackle the problem after this week's Hang Seng Bank report which indicated unemployment would stand at 3.2 per cent for the rest of the year.
Legco's labour representative, Tam Yiu-chung, said Mr Patten had argued the jobless figure only started rising after last August, when the Government stopped approving new quotas for employers.
'The Government may like to adopt a cautious approach now towards the scheme and to see what action can be taken after observing for a longer while,' Mr Tam said.
Mr Patten reminded members not to take a simplistic view of the situation.