Foreign workers at record high

MORE foreigners than ever are working in Hong Kong, according to the latest Immigration Department statistics.

The number of employment visas issued rose 37.4 per cent from 1996 to an all-time high of 56,092 in 1997.

While much of the increase was due to new requirements for Britons to obtain employment visas, the figures also showed a growing number of foreign companies were setting up offices here, probably with hopes of tapping the mainland market, said Ian Perkin, chief economist for the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.

'What we have is not only British people applying for visas, but Americans and Canadians,' Mr Perkin said. 'A lot more foreign companies are doing business in China and bringing in people with them to do business there.' The Immigration Department does not break down the visa total by nationality.

But it said that between last February and the end of January, 6,687 work visas were issued to British citizens.

That leaves about 8,600 visas issued to non-British citizens last year - the largest increase in recent years, according to immigration statistics.

The visa statistics do not include work permits for mainland workers and domestic helpers. Many of the new visas were issued to young people coming here last year for the handover celebrations, said Tom Masterson, a spokesman for the American Chamber of Commerce.

A number of the visas were also issued to American-born Chinese or Asian-born returnees - people who either grew up or studied abroad and came back to exploit career opportunities in Hong Kong for bilingual and bicultural people, said Larry Wang, managing director of corporate headhunting agency Wang and Li Asia Resources.

In the past five years, Mr Wang said he had seen an increasing number of Chinese-Americans interested in working in Hong Kong and the mainland.

Mr Wang has placed more than 100 employees in multinational firms and continues to receive 125 resumes from such job seekers each week.

The number of work visas requested and issued is expected to continue to increase.

British Chamber of Commerce director Christopher Hammerbeck said: 'Now people see very clearly Hong Kong remains an open government and it makes sense to come here because of its reach into mainland China and the region.'