Textile restrictions on Mainland, a blessing in disguise for HK
15 Oct '05
4 min read
Felix Chung said: "This has been requested by the trade for a long time... The Hong Kong government understands the need for this... We expect a happy ending."
He said: "A lot of the Hong Kong-invested factories, especially in the Pearl River Delta area, want to reopen their factories or expand their factories in Hong Kong. But we don't have sufficient skilled labour."
He added: "If we can find the local labour here, then that's fine. Or if we can retrain, that's also fine. But importation of labour seems to be the only way. There are actually quite a lot of Chinese manufacturers who approach us, wanting to understand more about us...Eventually, Chinese investors will hopefully open factories here, using the OPA systems. This would help the Hong Kong economy, no matter where they're from."
Chung said the situation was playing to the advantage of Hong Kong. "The garment industry can be the first starter to get industry back to Hong Kong."
Back in the mid-1970s, Hong Kong's textile industry employed around half of the manufacturing workforce, or around 350,000 workers, compared to only 41,000 in March this year.
Willy Lin, vice-chairman of the Textile Council of Hong Kong, who was also speaking at the press conference, said the scheme for importing labour was not new - and has been in place for more than a decade. He was also anxious to play down fears that a new scheme would have an impact on job opportunities for local workers.
marketing@alchempro.com
