a060  0645  13 Feb 89
PM-Hong Kong-No Workers, Adv 21,0736
$adv21
For Release Tues PMs Feb. 21 or Thereafter
Employers Find That Crowded Hong Kong Lacks Manpower
By DAN BIERS
Associated Press Writer
    HONG KONG (AP) - The teeming streets and apartment blocks jammed one
against the other suggest the last thing Hong Kong needs is more
people.
    But employers insist they have tens of thousands of jobs available
with no one to fill them. They want the government to relax strict
immigration laws so that foreign laborers can help fuel the robust
economy.
    ''There just aren't enough people to go around,'' said Ian Wade,
chairman of the 78-member Retail Management Association, of the
British colony's 5.7 million population.
    Hong Kong's economy expanded 13.5 percent in 1987 and an estimated 8
percent last year, sending the unemployment rate tumbling to a
negligible 1.3 percent for the three months ending in November. Jimmy
McGregor, who represents business interests in the local Legislature,
estimates that at least 100,000 more workers are needed.
    Business leaders say the shortage endangers future growth and forces
up wages, fueling inflation, which neared 8 percent last year. The
government, however, says bringing in foreigners who do not have
special skills would deprive local workers of their fair share of
Hong Kong's economic success and could create numerous social
problems.
    The shortage is felt in virtually every industry, from gritty
construction sites to the plush corridors of the five-star tourist
hotels.
    Employers are taking a wide variety of measures to cope.
    The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, short nearly 300 tellers as the
hectic Lunar New Year holiday approached in early February, attempted
to relieve the strain on its employees by giving away two Porsche
cars in a contest open only to customers who used automatic banking
machines, spokeswoman Fiona-Jane Kennedy said.
    The new Marriott Hotel angered competitors by instituting a 48-hour,
five-day work week, instead of the industry standard of six days.
    Kent Maury, the Marriott marketing director, said the five-day week
was designed to give his hotel a ''competitive edge'' in attracting
staff. ''It's done exactly what we wanted,'' he said, adding that
3,800 people applied for 1,100 openings.
    Meanwhile, hundreds of Hong Kong manufacturers have established
plants across the border in China's Guangdong province, where wages
are relatively cheap, land is available and labor is abundant.
    The critical construction industry has been particularly hard hit by
the scarcity of labor, with the vast majority of projects failing to
make completion deadlines, according to Gerrit J. de Nys, chief
executive of Shui On (Contractors) Ltd.
    The situation is exacerbated by laborers who are not working as
hard, aware of how valuable a commodity they have become, de Nys
said.
    ''If you yell and shout at them . . . they won't even say goodbye.
They'll just walk off the job.''
    Shui On now tends to focus more on public sector projects because
the government seems less likely to demand penalty payments for the
inevitable delays, de Nys said.
    Compounding the personnel headache faced by de Nys and others is the
loss of thousands of key professionals who are emigrating before
China takes over the colony in 1997.
    While there appears to be no quick fix to stem the emigration flow,
businessmen believe the labor shortage could be relieved if the
government relaxed immigration restrictions that generally allow the
entry of only specially skilled workers and maids.
    Nine major business associations have joined forces and are
preparing a report on their labor needs in hopes of persuading the
government to ease up on immigration.
    McGregor, who is involved in the project, said the government could
tap China for labor to do short-term contractual work.
English-speaking workers needed in service industries could be
brought in from the Philippines, Malaysia and possibly Thailand, he
said.
    So far, the government has refused to budge.
    Secretary for Education and Manpower Ron Bridge said in a November
speech that importing workers who do not have special skills ''would
be extremely damaging to our labor relations'' and reduce the
incentive for employers to upgrade technology, management and
productivity.
    Further, he said, the ''supply of housing, medical and social
services and our transport facilities would be stretched even
tighter,'' and Hong Kong could face international accusations of
exploiting cheap labor.
    End Adv Tues PMs Feb. 21
    
 
AP-NY-02-13-89 0929EST
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