A government plan to open the door for mainland professionals to work in the SAR has provoked debate, with unemployment having reached the unprecedented level of 5.8 per cent.
Under the proposed scheme, professionals from the mainland would be allowed to work in Hong Kong and become permanent residents after seven years.
No quota will be set as the number of professionals involved is expected to be small.
Advocates of the new scheme argue that importing mainland professionals would benefit Hong Kong in the long run.
Chinese medicine practitioners have supported the proposed move. The One Country Two Systems Research Institute says there is a need to import outstanding mainland professionals in the field of traditional Chinese medicine.
'Hong Kong has the potential to become an international centre of traditional Chinese medicine if we have sufficient practitioners who are knowledgeable in traditional Chinese medicine,' said institute director Shiu Sin-por.