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
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.
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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.
One of the success stories involved a group of young entrepreneurs who worked with a group of farmers in Dongguan in establishing a farm to develop their own brand of coffee.
They also opened cafes and became the best-loved coffee brand on one of the mainland’s most popular review and listing platforms, Huang said.
“Another group set up an online platform to sell Hong Kong products on the mainland … These entrepreneurs said it was only until they worked in the bay area that they realised that the place was so good, and the motherland’s support was so significant,” he added.
Huang hoped that these stories would encourage Hong Kong’s young people to embrace the nation’s economic progress.
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“Hong Kong young people understand the three languages – English, Cantonese and Mandarin – and have an internationalised vision. These are their unique competitive advantages in the bay area’s development,” he said. “They can have a bright future as they use their strengths to serve the nation’s needs.”
Huang also noted that President Xi Jinping had been supportive of Hong Kong’s young people.
When meeting a delegation of Hong Kong and Macau youth representatives in Beijing in 2018, Xi said the prospects of young people from the two cities were directly related to the development of the two places, as well as the nation as a whole.
“He also said we need to build more platforms and ladders for young people and solve the difficulties they faced in starting their business or finding jobs,” he said.
