Kick off Ceremony for 2007 Oregon Scientific Sports Scholarship

If given the chance, what would young people ask of President Hu Jintau during his recent visit to Hong Kong? According to a newly released Youth Poll conducted by the Federation, the concern most young people had was on how to maintain Hong Kong's economic prosperity and competitiveness. Others wished to know when universal suffrage would be introduced.

Conducted in late June, the poll interviewed 371 young people aged between 20 and 39 to seek their views on recent developments between the Mainland and Hong Kong.

More than three-fourths (76.8%) of respondents said that they had more confidence in the future development of the Mainland. Approximately two-thirds (63.7%) revealed that their familiarity with the Mainland had increased, representing the highest percentage among other similar surveys. The findings also showed increasing percentages, of young people identified being "Chinese" (62.9%), and of being proud to be "Chinese" (41.3%), as compared to previous surveys conduced in 1998 and 2004.

A little over than 40 per cent (41.2%) of respondents said that their "sense of belonging" to Hong Kong had increased; a figure far higher than that found in a 2004 survey.

When asked about their views on Hong Kong's future, 86.3% of respondents agreed that social participation in the community was necessary. They were also generally more confident about the maintenance of 12 core values that were suggested in the survey. Of these values, "diligence" secured 75.44 points out of 100 (100 indicating the highest confidence), followed by "incorruptibility" (74.44 points) and the "Rule of Law" (73.02 points). All the marks given to the 12 values were higher than those for the same question put forward in previous surveys.

*Visit http://www.hkfyg.org.hk/yrc/chinese/yr-p162c.html for the Chinese press release.

Government competition for young talent in the region makes local youth uneasy about their own prospects. In May, 506 young people aged 18-34 were asked by the Federation for their views on schemes for attracting talented workers and their feelings about their own chances in the job market.

Over 54% did not find the current Work Holiday Programme offered by the Singapore government with a 6-month work-visa attractive although over 75% agreed that such a programme could increase their competitiveness.

Views were split over how talented people from outside Hong Kong might be absorbed into Hong Kong's workforce but almost 50% said they thought the existing schemes were insufficient for seamless integration. Close to 30% did not want to see them expanded, most saying it would increase unemployment and adversely affect their own employment prospects.

When asked about their career plans, 16.5% of the respondents said the place they most wanted to work was Hong Kong and 17.0% said did not want to work anywhere else ever, whereas about 12% preferred the mainland or Australia. Nearly 40% said that to optimize career development they would like to start work in HK and work elsewhere when the opportunity arose. Just over 30% thought that working outside Hong Kong but coming back here eventually to settle would be best.

*Visit http://www.hkfyg.org.hk/yrc/chinese/yr-p161c.html for the Chinese press release.
English title: Talented job competition from outside Hong Kong and career prospects

A survey* among 1,004 Hong Kong opinion leaders on the challenges faced by future leaders found that 40% rated the government's performance poor in encouraging an environment in the territory that is conducive to talent. 43% thought that the young were not equipped with adequate global perspective and that the onus for encouraging such a perspective rested largely on government's shoulders.

Over 90% thought that competitiveness in the next generation could be enhanced by encouraging a more liberal and interactive learning environment in Hong Kong schools. Over 80% agreed that innovative teaching methods, native English- and Mandarin-speaking teachers and better student-teacher relationships would also help. 68% thought that reducing assessment with tests and exams would help too.

Meanwhile, the number of students in Hong Kong applying for mainland universities has gradually risen, from 417 in 2005 to 628 this year.** 518 applied last year but only 271 actually enrolled. Reasons cited for choosing mainland universities include less fierce competition for places and fees one-tenth of those in Hong Kong. Approximately 10% of the students doing economics in Zhongshan University in Guangzhou are from Hong Kong. Conversely, over 1 million mainland students have left to study overseas in the past 30 years. Only 25% returned. The forecast for the annual exodus by 2005 is 200,000.***

* 10th SCMP/TNS opinion leaders' survey, reported in South China Morning Post 4 June 2007
** South China Morning Post 11 June 2007
*** South China Morning Post 9 June 2007