Textile bosses have sought to assure local workers their jobs are safe after proposing to import up to 10,000 foreign workers.
Textile Council chairman Chan Wing-kee maintained yesterday the importation plan was only part of a package to rejuvenate the textile and garment industry and promote Hong Kong as a first-class fashion centre.
He pledged that more high-paying white-collar jobs in design and merchandising would be created although some blue-collar jobs, such as sewing, would go to imported workers.
'We firmly believe that the garment industry must act as an engine to drive the revitalisation of the entire industrial sector,' Mr Chan said.
Meanwhile, Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said he had not received any specific proposal on the labour plan.
'I'm prepared to listen, but whatever it is, it must be working under the principle that Hong Kong workers' interests come first,' he said.
Kenneth Fang Hung, a former council chairman and head of its newly formed revitalisation committee, said it was hoped a decision on the labour importation proposal would be made by March, when the industry prepared to fill autumn orders.
