Letters | How corporate Hong Kong can help city’s youth and the economy

Name: Hong Kong’s class of 2020 fears becoming ‘lost’ generation as Covid-19 shakes the global economy
Uploaded: 2021-04-06T22:45:05.000Z
Duration: 3 min 20 s
Description: Hong Kong’s class of 2020 fears becoming ‘lost’ generation as Covid-19 shakes the global economy

These are industries in the Greater Bay Area which will benefit from an inflow of Hong Kong graduates who are bilingual

Hong Kong companies with business in the Greater Bay Area should embrace youth employment initiatives

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Tencent’s headquarters in Nanshan district, Shenzhen. The Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme encourages young Hongkongers to gain work experience in cities including Shenzhen. Photo: Xinhua

Letters

Published: 6:45am, 7 Apr 2021Updated: 6:45am, 7 Apr 2021

Jobs are scarce everywhere because of the sluggish global economy in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Hong Kong where tourism, entertainment, dining, hospitality and aviation are the hardest hit, we recently recorded a 7.2 per cent unemployment rate, the highest in 17 years.

In such an environment, young first-time jobseekers, especially those without work experience, will face tremendous difficulties. The social unrest and the pandemic have made it challenging for our university graduates to find jobs in the past two years. Currently, the jobless rate of those aged 15-25 is 15.6 per cent, more than double the overall rate.

This year, our university graduates are likely to again face challenges and will need help. Governments play a crucial role in the career development of the youth. Our government has initiated the Youth Development Fund and Space Sharing Scheme to nurture young start-up entrepreneurs.

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Hong Kong’s class of 2020 fears becoming ‘lost’ generation as Covid-19 shakes the global economy

Certainly, not all youngsters will be interested in pursuing a career in the creative or innovative industries. Therefore, the government has also worked with enterprises to roll out summer internship programmes in the mainland and overseas, so young people may accumulate work experience and gain a solid understanding of China, the world’s second largest economy that could soon overtake the United States.

It makes perfect sense for our youth to seize every opportunity to gain exposure to the Chinese economy, in particular the Greater Bay Area, of which Hong Kong is a key city. The Greater Bay Area, with a population of 72 million, has gross domestic product of US$1.68 trillion, close to that of Canada.

02:35

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Letters | How corporate Hong Kong can help city’s youth and the economy