Hong Kong needs more foreign workers

Age is finally catching up to Hong Kong's aging and declining work force.

The government projects the city will need 14,000 workers by 2018, and acknowledges this many workers can only be sourced from overseas. Hong Kong needs a labor force of 3.6 million in six years and the low birth rate will be insufficient to produce this number.

An embarrassingly low birth rate has led the workforce to grow by a mere 0.6%, which is half the growth rate Hong Kong needs to maintain the size of its current workforce into the future.

Hong Kong intends to speed up its campaign to attract talented workers from abroad after a study revealed Hong Kong faces a potentially crippling labour shortage due to its aging population.

''The government has put in place a host of measures to attract and nurture talents and upgrade the skills of our workforce in order to ensure an adequate manpower supply,'' said Labor and Welfare Secretary Matthew Cheung.

The study showed that persons with upper-secondary and sub-degree qualifications would be in shortest supply. There will, however, be a surplus of low-skilled workers.

Hong Kong will need more people with upper-secondary and sub-degree qualifications to attain its goal of becoming a knowledge-based economy.