Young people should treasure every opportunity to equip themselves and face the challenges ahead with determination to map out a bright career path, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang said on Thursday.

He urged Secondary Five graduates to take into account their interests and abilities in deciding whether to pursue further studies or join the job market.

Tsang made the remarks while visiting the Labor Department's Hong Kong East Job Center and the Youth Pre-employment Training Program Office Thursday morning to see the development of employment services.

The city's total employment maintained an upward trend with the creation of about 230,000 new jobs in the past three years. For the first half of this year, the department received 243,021 vacancies from the private sector and achieved 58,993 placements for job-seekers, up 25 percent and 16 percent over a year earlier.

"Although our economy has revived, globalization has brought about competition. We will continue to strive to enable the economy to forge ahead at full steam. We will keep on investing in infrastructure, providing a business-friendly environment and creating more job opportunities," Tsang said.

On employment in remote districts, Tsang said he believed the new job centers in Yuen Long and the North District to be open next month will offer more job information and referral services for people in the area. This will help ease the jobless situation in these districts, he added.

More than 110,000 young people have so far received training under the Youth Pre-employment Training Program Office, program and the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme.

(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2006)