Top Beijing official tells Hong Kong young people to embrace work opportunities in mainland China

Huang Liuquan, from nation’s top body overseeing Hong Kong, says language skills, global outlook of city’s youth give them competitive edge on mainland

Local practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine will be allowed to work at Greater Bay Area health institutions, entry threshold relaxed for city legal professionals, he says

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The Greater Bay Area, including Shenzhen, provides a wealth of opportunity for Hong Kong’s highly skilled younger generation, Beijing says. Photo: Martin Chan

Published: 2:43pm, 25 Aug 2021Updated: 5:20pm, 25 Aug 2021

Hong Kong’s young people should embrace the work opportunities offered by mainland China, as their language skills and international outlook give them unique strengths when competing with their counterparts over the border, a senior Beijing official has said.

Huang Liuquan, a deputy director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, also promised that Beijing would continue rolling out new initiatives to improve the job prospects of city residents on the mainland, especially in the arts, traditional Chinese medicine and legal sectors.

Huang’s comments to the pro-establishment Hong Kong United Youth Association on Wednesday came on the fourth and final day of a mainland delegation’s city visit to brief local officials, lawmakers and business leaders on China’s 14th five-year plan.

In a 13-minute speech, Huang said the central government had been trying to provide more employment opportunities for young people in the city under the Greater Bay Area project, which aims to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine Guangdong cities into a finance and technological powerhouse rivalling Silicon Valley in the United States.

Huang said that in recent years Guangdong authorities had started to provide jobs for Hong Kong’s youth and established business parks for young entrepreneurs. More would be done in the near future, he added.

“We will provide more opportunities for them in our programmes, and include Hong Kong and Macau arts professionals in our employment assessment schemes,” he revealed.

“We will also allow Hong Kong Chinese medicine practitioners to work in bay area public health institutions, as well as relax the entry threshold for Hong Kong legal professionals.”

Huang noted that Guangdong officials had set up a number of business parks in recent years, and by the end of last year, more than 1,000 Hong Kong and Macau young people had been involved in a total of 765 projects.