The new labour minister said yesterday that he would meet unionists and business leaders over the next two weeks to pool ideas on how to tackle unemployment.
Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan said it was important for the government, the employed and employers to sit down together and solve the problem.
'It is even more important that both workers and employers will find the solutions beneficial to them . . . We have to have new thinking to tackle the problem,' he said on the Commercial Radio phone-in programme Teacup in a Storm.
Mr Ip, formerly the secretary for financial services, said the problem of unemployment would not be solved within a short period and the government should try to be more flexible in allowing unemployed people to earn a living.
Mr Ip was responding to reports that three unemployed men who tried to make money by taking pictures of visitors at Victoria Park were arrested by Leisure and Cultural Services Department officers for harassment. They were fined up to $300 each at Eastern Court on Wednesday.
Unionist legislator Chan Yuen-han has criticised the government for failing to be flexible or to encourage self-help.