Secretary for Labour & Welfare Chris Sun today concluded his visit to Singapore after getting a grasp on its experience of talent recruitment and manpower development in the past two days.

During the visit, Mr Sun met Chinese Ambassador to Singapore Sun Haiyan and updated her on Hong Kong’s latest labour market and economic situation.

He then called on Minister for Manpower of Singapore Tan See Leng and exchanged views on attracting talent amid the dual challenge of an ageing population and shrinking labour force of the two places as exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

They discussed seizing the advantages of the role of Hong Kong and Singapore as part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the gateway to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, thereby boosting the attractiveness of Asia to talent around the world.

Additionally, Mr Sun visited the Institute of Technical Education to keep abreast of its vocational and professional education and training from pre-employment to in-service programmes, equipping post-secondary students for the digital economy.

He toured an enterprise on life and health technology, which has established a foothold in Hong Kong, Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia, to take a closer look at facilitation measures needed for high potential enterprises to set up operations in major economies.

The labour chief also met Nanyang Technological University Senior Vice President (Health & Life Sciences) Joseph Sung, representatives of the Hong Kong Singapore Business Association and Hong Kong people working or studying in Singapore.

Noting that the three-year-long global pandemic had impeded the entry of talent to Hong Kong, Mr Sun stressed that the package of measures on talent attraction set out in the Policy Address has been launched.

Such measures include the Top Talent Pass Scheme designed to entice graduates from the world's top 100 universities or talent earning HK$2.5 million a year to pursue their career in Hong Kong.

He added that the online platform of the Talents Service Unit "HK Talent Engage" also commenced operation to streamline and fast-track applications received under various talent admission schemes.

Upon concluding his trip, Mr Sun said the experience of Singapore served as a valuable reference for Hong Kong to trawl for quality talent and improve manpower projections in the future.