Budget Speech

Supporting Job Seekers

147.      To Hong Kong people, having a job is of utmost importance. Employment provides a source of steady income and protection for individuals and families. It is a key to social stability. Therefore, I have been paying great attention to the employment issue and adopting a two-pronged approach. First is promoting economic development. Only when the economy grows robustly can more employment opportunities be created. Second is providing suitable employment support and training to increase the competitiveness and employment motivation of job seekers so they can seize these opportunities. I will therefore provide additional funding of $173 million to implement the following measures to support job seekers.

148.      The Labour Department will launch a two-year "Pilot Employment Navigator Programme". Under this programme, a cash incentive of $5,000 will be payable to each person who has worked for a continuous period of three months after receiving the department's intensive employment counselling and job matching services. The programme will provide 11 000 places a year. It is designed to address the problem of manpower mismatch, fully utilise our labour productivity and encourage employment.

149.      We will step up our efforts to help young people with special employment difficulties. The Labour Department will launch a targeted employment programme under which non-governmental organisations will provide training and internship for 12 months to young people, aged between 15 and 24 with low educational qualifications, who need special assistance because of emotional and behavioural problems or learning difficulties. The programme will provide 500 places.

150.      In my last Budget I provided additional funding of over $400 million for the Labour Department to strengthen its various employment and training services. These services will continue to benefit job seekers in 2010-11.

151.      During the Budget consultation period, there were many suggestions to extend the Transport Support Scheme, which aims at encouraging needy job seekers living in remote districts where job opportunities are fewer to "go out" and seek jobs or work across districts. The Labour and Welfare Bureau will complete by the end of this year a study on ways to reduce the burden of travelling expenses borne by the working poor in Hong Kong. The existing Transport Support Scheme will remain in force before the completion of the study. I will make suitable financial provisions depending on the findings of the study.

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