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Friday, July 26, 2019, 08:36
Cultivating a talent pool for the next decade
By Oswald Chan
Friday, July 26, 2019, 08:36 By Oswald Chan

Government officials, university presidents, business leaders and startup founders attend the Recruit Roundtable hosted by Recruit, and co-organized by China Daily Hong Kong Edition and the Hong Kong Management Association, in Hong Kong, July 19, 2019. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Hong Kong was recently ranked the world’s seventh-most competitive economy, according to The Global Competitiveness Report 2018, presented by the World Economic Forum. Though the city was proficient in traditional parameters such as macroeconomic stability, product market, financial system, basic infrastructure, and the information and communications technology adoption rate, it is lagging behind in talent skills (ranked 19th) and innovation capability (ranked 26th).

The city is struggling to transform its economy from traditional industry-reliant into an one that is innovation-led. In 2017, the four pillar industries — financial services, professional services, trade and logistics, and tourism — contributed 57.1 percent of the city’s GDP and employed 1.78 million people in the same period, accounting for 46.6 percent of the total working population. The innovation and technology industry accounted for 0.7 percent of the city’s GDP during 2009 and 2017, Census and Statistics Department data shows.

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More worrisome is the fact that Hong Kong will face a labor shrinkage cycle in the next decade. According to the Labor and Welfare Bureau, the working population will start to diminish from 3.68 million in 2022 to 3.57 million in 2027. In the same period, the four pillar industries, plus the information technology and information services industry as well as the innovation and technology industry, will demand an additional 200,000 workers to fill job positions. Therefore, it is imperative to take action to maintain both the quality and quantity of the city’s labor force.

Government officials, university presidents, business leaders and startup founders recently exchanged their views on how to attract and nurture a talent pool that can help Hong Kong excel in the next decade. The discussions took place during the Recruit Roundtable, held on July 19 and hosted by all-round recruitment and education media Recruit, and co-organized by China Daily Hong Kong Edition and the Hong Kong Management Association (HKMA).

Victor Lee Sze-kuen, right, HKMA executive director, roundtable moderator, and Law Chi-kwong, labor and welfare secretary of HKSAR government (PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Government initiative

“The government should listen and give feedback on how to lure talent while enterprises should devote more resources for staff skill upgrading and business branding to attract and nurture employees,” HKMA Executive Director and roundtable moderator Victor Lee Sze-kuen said.

Labor and Welfare Secretary Law Chi-kwong acknowledged that the institutional system of the government sometimes is not quick enough to respond to job market changes.

“The administration is good at providing macro-planning while it is not good at giving specific targets. Actually, no one really knows the changes in labor market demand in the next 20 years. Therefore, Hong Kong’s market-orientated labor market still provides the best gauge for the government and training institutions to conduct human resources planning,” Law said.

The government should listen and give feedback on how to lure talent while enterprises should devote more resources for staff skill upgrading and business branding to attract and nurture employees.

Victor Lee Sze-kuen, HKMA Executive Director

In the public consultation document Hong Kong 2030+: Towards a Planning Vision and Strategy Transcending 2030, the government pledged that it is confronting the challenges of fostering market development of all industries and creating more quality and technology-embracing job positions. As economic development comes at a rapid pace in areas such as financial technology, intelligent production and services, global supply chain, e-commerce as well as environmental technologies, the government needs a resilient and flexible response.

Hong Kong Baptist University President Roland Chin Tai-hong concurred, saying universities should rely on the job market rather than government data to predict what kind of study programs will be in demand in the future.

Chin cited the example that some information technology courses of five engineering schools in the city are mainly academic-based on a study curriculum of 10 to 20 years ago. “Universities and enterprises should collaborate to give more industry input so that these courses can endow more engineering technology application training to students. I hope the two parties can cooperate to launch a university course to train data scientists,” he said.

Educational and training institutions in Hong Kong should provide flexible and appropriate courses to supply more local technology workers in areas of engineering, computer and science, where the ratio of graduation in these academic fields is low. The government, industries, and educational and training organizations should collaborate to launch an industry skill framework and career planning as well as launching courses that promote new skills such as data analysis and advanced manufacturing.

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Roland Chin Tai-hong, left, president of Hong Kong Baptist University, Thomas Ho On-shing, center, chief executive of Gammon Construction, and Reeve Kwan Chun-man, co-founder of GoGoVan. (PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Gammon Construction Chief Executive Thomas Ho On-shing said: “The government should be more flexible, and private developers should also open up their mindsets to improve the productivity of the construction industry.”

Ho said the city has 450,000 construction workers, of which 12 percent are over 60 years old. The city’s construction sector trains 5,000 semi-skilled middle-rank workers annually, but the sector still lacks 5,000 to 10,000 skilled workers. Every year, the industry imports 500 to 1,000 overseas workers, but the procedure of labor importation is cumbersome, requiring a 14-month application period. The industry makes virtually no investment in research and development (R&D) so that the quality and safety record of the industry is not good while construction costs are ranked the highest among Asian countries and regions.

The government has already earmarked HK$100 billion (US$12.8 billion) for refining technology and innovation facilities and training in Hong Kong, and pledged that the ratio of total R&D expenditure to GDP be increased to 1.5 percent in 2022 from 0.7 percent in 2017. In the World Economic Forum report, Hong Kong was ranked 48th in terms of the ratio of R&D expenditure to GDP.

Reeve Kwan Chun-man, co-founder of the delivery-service startup GoGoVan, cited the Singapore government as an example of one that uses regular financial subsidies to encourage local enterprises to adopt new technologies in their businesses. This encourages more technology workers to seek employment in the Lion City, spurring the growth of the venture capital market there.

“I anticipate a talent shortage requiring strong and specific information technology skill sets is looming. This will be very challenging for the Hong Kong labor market in the next five to ten years,” Kwan said.

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In 2017, Hong Kong had about 29,000 R&D personnel, but this figure is astonishingly lower than the 50,000 in Singapore in 2016, indicating a gap of 20,000 R&D employees in Hong Kong. The Singapore government launched the SkillsFuture program to enhance the innovative capability and productivity of its working population.

According to a research report conducted by City University of Hong Kong in 2018, Hong Kong is trailing behind Shenzhen and Guangzhou in terms of technology talent, capital input and invention patents. For example, Hong Kong filed 1,080 invention patents in 2018, drastically lower than Shenzhen’s 207,000 and Guangzhou’s 141,000.

Skill upgrade programs 

Private companies also can play a very proactive role in digital transformation through corporate rebranding and boosting the number of their skilled workers.

Global auditing advisory firm PwC, also known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, has launched digital skill upgrade programs to enhance 20,000 PwC employees’ digital acumen and sensitivity. Program participants should learn how to utilize data in their respective business fields.

The training program is mainly based on game formats for participants to explore their interest areas such as blockchain, cybersecurity and virtual banking. In the program, a company dashboard is set up to list participants’ progress in the training. 

“It is important for enterprises to provide skill upgrade programs for staff and cultivate business data strategy,” said Raymund Chao Pak-ki, PwC’s chairman for Asia Pacific and greater China.

Raymund Chao Pak-ki, left, PwC's chairman for Asia Pacific and greater China, and Annie Yau Tse On-yee, chairman of HK Retail Management Association (PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

A survey by technology firms revealed that 73 percent of the interviewed companies do not have any training courses for staffs to learn new skills, indicating enterprises in Hong Kong are lagging behind in revamping their respective staff training programs.

Chao thinks that it is important to maintain the digital skill upgrade program because he believes that “private enterprises should provide digital upgrades to satisfy social responsibility needs and business needs simultaneously.”

Annie Yau Tse On-yee, chairman of the Hong Kong Retail Management Association (HKRMA), said the retail industry is undertaking the rebranding process by employing technologies.

As expected, Hong Kong’s labor market may be transformed by digitization in the coming five to 10 years. Traditional pillar industries such as financial services, retail, accounting and engineering are embracing technologies in their workflows. 

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In Hong Kong, there are about 480,000 clerical support staffs and 630,000 services and sales employees whose skill sets will be disrupted by technology. 

Around 80 percent of the job positions will witness a transformation in Hong Kong within three years, and about 60 percent of the jobs currently in the labor market will be reassigned to high-value added job positions, or these employees will have to learn new skills to respond market demand amid the age of business digitalization, according to technology research firms.

“With technological adoption, retailers can enhance worker efficiency to solve the gridlock of labor shortage. Technology also helps us to deliver experiential customer journey whereas most of the visitors coming to Hong Kong are 20 to 40 years old.” Yau said.

Yau, the chairman and CEO of Tse Sui Luen Jewellery (International), envisages Hong Kong as the hub of retail management training. The HKRMA is working with local universities to consider the possibility of introducing retail management courses in these educational institutions.

William Leung Wing-cheung, left, chief executive of  WeLab, and Anna Yip On-na, CEO of telecoms company SmarTone (PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

In the telecommunications industry, industry players are proactively leveraging artificial intelligence and chatbots to provide customer service. The industry is anticipating some job positions will be substituted by technology, and some telecoms companies may not keep abreast of the latest market development.

‘We already employ robotic chatbots to deal with around 20 percent of the inquiries that do not involve customer information,” said Anna Yip On-na, CEO of telecoms company SmarTone.

“We think it is vital to give staff training opportunities so that they can upgrade their skills. In the future, we also need to design training to balance the company’s need for manual labor and technology,” Yip added.

Sense of self-improvement

Apart from government initiative and employer training, employees also play an important part in skills upgrades, roundtable panelists said.

“Graduate students should learn how to cope with market changes to make adjustments to the labor market. They should also cultivate their own personal agendas on how to advance their career paths,” said William Leung Wing-cheung, chief executive of financial technology startup WeLab.

Leung, who is also the chairman of the Estate Agents Authority, said students should have the sense of self-improvement and self-awareness to cope with labor market changes disrupted by technology.

David Fong Man-hung, right, managing director of Hip Shing Hong (Holdings) Co, and Eric Or Chi-shing, JOS greater China managing director (PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

JOS, a member of the Jardine Matheson Group specializing in technology services, agrees with Leung. “University graduates should cultivate communication skills and a sense of soft touch so that they can engage with customers. They should develop learning attitudes and learning willingness to enhance their employability.” JOS Greater China Managing Director Eric Or Chi-shing said.

University graduates should not just have a willingness to learn, but also cultivate the sense of global vision when planning their careers, panelists added.

“Some of the Hong Kong young people are inward-looking and seldom put much time to learn their career upward mobility opportunities,” property and real estate development services company Hip Shing Hong (Holdings) Company Managing Director David Fong Man-hung said.

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“Hong Kong, as a business hub serving the Chinese mainland and ASEAN countries, provides many career opportunities for local graduates. Hence, they should be more proactive to go outside to find more job opportunities,” Fong said.

Contact the writer at oswald@chinadailyhk.com

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