Hong Kong labour and welfare secretary Chris Sun rules out housing provision for overseas talent as 70,000 people arrive this year through recruitment schemes

Chris Sun Yuk-han, the labour and welfare secretary, added on Saturday the recruitment programmes had shown “encouraging results” and authorities would help match new talent with suitable companies to prevent job misalignment.

“Our Talent Engage Office is doing a lot of matching because we noticed that these talents want to find jobs and employers also need help,” he said in a radio interview.

“Recently, we attempted to go online with the insurance sector. The response was good. Many people participated in the online job fair and succeeded in getting matched.”

But Sun ruled out suggestions from some lawmakers that people brought to the city under the talent drive should be given flats.

“At a general level, we don’t consider providing [them with accommodation],” he said. “We must take into account the pressure facing Hong Kong society. Our locals are facing enormous housing pressure.”

Authorities earlier said Hong Kong had more than 180,000 applications through talent recruitment schemes between January and October and more than 110,000 were approved.

Sun added that more than 70 per cent of the 43,000 applicants under the Top Talent Pass Scheme had opted to work in innovation and technology, finance and trading, and mainland Chinese accounted for most of them.

But he said about 20 per cent of the Top Talent Pass applicants were either living overseas or had graduated from overseas institutions in countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia.

“This is the most noticeable in category C applicants … a whopping 40 per cent were from overseas,” he said. “They are all very young and graduated from excellent schools or top universities.

“Those young people will greatly contribute to Hong Kong’s economy.”

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Category C applicants are people who have earned a bachelor’s degree from a list of top universities in the five years before their application and have less than three years of work experience.

An annual quota of 10,000 people has been set for the category.

Sun said he hoped to entice more Hongkongers living abroad to return to the city to work.

He added that the government’s Overseas Economic and Trade Offices would step up efforts to bring Hongkongers home when promoting the city.

Lee said graduates from 184 institutions were at present eligible to apply for the scheme.

Sun said on Saturday that three more universities had already been added to the list of eligible institutions.

Sun also drew attention to a recent series of fatal industrial accidents in Hong Kong after the city recorded another job site death on Friday.

A man died after he was hit by an aluminium sheet that fell during a lifting operation in Tung Chung.

The worker suffered a head injury and was rushed to hospital, but was later pronounced dead by doctors.

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The Labour Department said the contractors were given suspension notices until safety was ensured and that officials were carrying out an on-site investigation to identify the cause of the accident.

“The contractors cannot resume the work process until the Labour Department is satisfied that measures to abate the relevant risks have been taken,” a department spokesman said on Friday night.

“We will take actions pursuant to the law if there is any violation of the work safety legislation.”

Sun said that the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance was amended in April to increase penalties for those who breached safety regulations.

But he added that punishment alone would not guarantee safety on construction sites.

Sun said that training, promotion, and inspection were also needed, and that the government was working on those aspects.

He added Hong Kong had the heaviest penalties in the region after the legislation was beefed-up.

Sun said the government would work with the Department of Justice to prosecute contractors found to have broken health and safety rules.