Our country supports Hong Kong in leveraging and driving the development of the professional services sectors in the entire Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. As the key lies precisely in whether we have enough professional talents, it is necessary for the Government to nurture local professional services talents on various fronts.

Population has rebounded but complacency is not an option

Hong Kong has lost over 200,000 people in the workforce in the past three years. According to the Census and Statistics Department, there were nearly 14,000 job vacancies for professionals as of last December. As Hong Kong needs to integrate into the country’s overall development, its professional workforce is indispensable for its development in becoming the “eight centers”.

Despite an increase from the middle of last year, Hong Kong’s population this year has not returned to the pre-pandemic level of 2019. Some analysts pointed out that the rise in population was due to an unleash of pent-up demand as many Hong Kong residents who stayed in the Mainland or overseas returned to Hong Kong after the pandemic. Therefore, a reversal of the downward trend in population is still not a definitive conclusion. In my view, the Government should strengthen the nurturing of local professional services talents on three fronts.

Strengthen students’ determination to join relevant sectors in the future

There is no doubt that students must first be encouraged to join the professional services sectors after graduation. As one of Hong Kong’s four pillar industries, it has an adequate economic structure to entice students into joining the professional services sectors. Research reports and surveys have shown that Hong Kong’s university students are actually not lacking interest in the professional services sectors, so the Government can consider appropriately increasing the number of relevant university places. At the same time, it can strengthen career planning education for students to deepen their understanding of professional services and cultivate their yearning for the professional services sectors.

However, with the current limited number of university places, I believe that Applied Learning (ApL) subjects for senior secondary schools are also very important in enticing students into related professions. In addition to the compulsory subjects and Category-A elective subjects, senior secondary school students can also take Category-B ApL subjects. Some of these subjects are related to professional services, such as Accounting for e-Business, Law Enforcement in Hong Kong, and Tech Basics. Unfortunately, there are only over 4,000 applicants this year, accounting for about 10% of school candidates, and the more popular subjects have nothing to do with professional services.

In addition, ApL subject results are equivalent to Level 4 or above in Category-A subjects of the Diploma Examination, and some universities only recognize relevant subjects as additional supporting materials. So, how can we entice students into enrolling? In my view, the Government should review the grading of ApL subjects in order to attract more students to enroll.

Strive for mutual recognition of qualifications with Greater Bay Area for more relevant sectors

At the same time, the HKSAR government should work with the relevant Mainland authorities to expand the scope of mutual recognition of professional qualifications between the two places, so that more people in the professional services sectors can practice in the Greater Bay Area. This should be able to attract local talents to join these sectors.

Encourage sectors to provide continuing education-friendly policies for employees

For those who are already in the sectors, continuing education is of great benefit to the interests of the employees themselves or their employers. However, in professional services sectors such as those of accountants and lawyers, it is common for them to get off to work early in the morning and get off work in the wee hours of the morning, so it is very difficult for them to continue their education. I suggest that the Government can discuss with the sectors whether they can provide friendly policies related to further studies to enable working people to study and become professional talents.

Amid a brain drain and low birth rates, the Government should take a multi-pronged approach to nurture and retain local talents, and formulate population import policies to promote Hong Kong’s longer-term development.

This is a free translation. For the exact meaning of the article, please refer to the Chinese version.