Letters | Hong Kong talent ‘trawl’: why pay to export graduates to the mainland?

Readers discuss the Greater Bay Area youth employment subsidy scheme, and the growing reach of Nato.

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People on their way to work in Central in 2022.
In the past two years, Hong Kong’s workforce shrank by about 140,000. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 11:30am, 7 Mar 2023

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In the past two years, the local workforce shrank by about 140,000, as strict anti-epidemic measures fuelled an exodus. Now, a new scheme threatens to intensify Hong Kong’s brain drain.

In his policy address last year, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu vowed to nurture and retain local talent while proactively trawling the world for top professionals. Among other policies, the Top Talent Pass Scheme was launched, and immigration arrangements for non-local graduates were relaxed. The government has repeatedly said attracting talent to the city is at the top of its agenda. Paradoxically, however, we are supporting the departure of home-grown talent from our city for the mainland.

On March 1, the government announced the launch of the regularised Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme. Companies operating in Hong Kong and the mainland cities of the Greater Bay Area are eligible to join the scheme. The government will grant a monthly allowance of HK$10,000 per employee to companies which hire Hong Kong graduates to work in the mainland cities for 18 months and which offer a salary of at least HK$18,000.

I wonder how using public money to push graduates to the mainland can help retain local talent. Moreover, I do not see other Greater Bay Area cities offering similar subsidies to encourage their talent to work in Hong Kong. Aren’t the Greater Bay Area cities supposed to work together?

This scheme aims to broaden Hong Kong graduates’ horizons by offering them opportunities to live and work elsewhere in the Greater Bay Area. Learning more about the Greater Bay Area and our motherland can definitely enhance our youngsters’ competitiveness.

However, for Hong Kong to benefit in the long run, these youngsters should then transfer the knowledge gained from the mainland back to our city.