Retaining talent: Assistant Director of Immigration Helen Chan tells a radio audience the department will liberalise the immigration regime to enable non-local graduates to stay and work in Hong Kong.

The stringent assessment criteria for Quality Migrant Admission Scheme applicants remains in place - despite revisions in scheme details that allow Hong Kong to cast a wider net in its search for quality migrants, Assistant Director of Immigration Helen Chan says.

Speaking on a radio show this morning, Ms Chan said the scheme was revised in mid-January to enable more Mainland and overseas quality migrants to be short-listed for further assessment, particularly younger ones, in view of Hong Kong's ageing population. But the scheme's annual quota of 1,000 entrants remains.

Click here for revision details.

She stressed despite the changes, the stringent assessment criteria remains. Before the revision, the scheme's advisory committee endorsed 71% of the short-listed applications it assessed. Although more applications were short-listed after the revision, the success rate fell to 60%.

Ms Chan said 74 applications which were not qualified for further assessment before the revision have now been short-listed for the advisory committee's vetting.

Since the scheme's launch in mid-2006, the committee has handled 578 short-listed applications, with 398 endorsed. The success rate is 69%.

She said there are many schemes to attract Mainland and overseas talent to Hong Kong, adding the department will liberalise the immigration regime to make it easier for non-local graduates to stay and work in Hong Kong.

From the 2008-09 school year, non-local graduates who have obtained a degree or higher qualification in a full-time programme in Hong Kong, upon application to the Immigration Department, may be granted 12 months' stay without any condition and are free to take up any jobs.