INDEPENDENT legislator Samuel Wong Ping-wai yesterday denied reports that he was stepping down from the chairmanship of the Retraining Board because it had failed to improve the unemployment problem. Mr Wong said when he was appointed chairman of the Vocational Training Council in January this year, he had told the then secretary for education and manpower, Michael Leung Man-kin, to find someone else to take over the chairmanship of the board when his term ended in late October. 'I don't think it's a good idea for me to be the chairman of both the council and the Retraining Board as there could be conflicts between the two bodies,' he said. 'For example the council helps the board provide retraining programmes for workers who want to find jobs in the hotel industry but perhaps the board might think the programmes provided by the council are a bit expensive.' He also denied the board had failed to help improve the unemployment situation in Hong Kong despite unemployment climbing to an 11-year high of 3.5 per cent. Mr Wong said the board had an about 75 to 80 per cent success rate in finding work for retrainees. Mr Wong declined to predict who would succeed him on the board. However, Mr Wong gained yet another chairmanship yesterday. He was elected head of Legco's Public Works Sub-committee. The Democratic Party' Albert Chan Wai-yip is deputy chairman. And Legco's Establishment Sub-committee yesterday chose Liberal Party's Ronald Arculli and the Democratic Party's Anthony Cheung Bing-leung to be chairman and deputy chairman respectively.
