Leung told the press after a meeting of the Taskforce on Employment that the meeting discussed the impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on the economy and on the labor market, adding that the pressure on unemployment will continue for a while.

However, as the efforts of the government in containing the disease have taken effect and with the WHO and the US CDC lifting their travel advisory on Hong Kong, "We are already seeing improvements in local consumption and improvements in the tourism industry," he said.

Early in April, the government announced a relief package amounting to 11.8 billion HK dollars (US$1.52 billion) of which more than 400 million HK dollars (US$51.28 million) was earmarked for creating short-term jobs.

The finance secretary said that the government plans to create more than 21,000 jobs in the short-term, adding "right now we have already more than 6,000 people engaging in various short-term employment opportunities as well as in training opportunities."

In addition to that, there are various measures that the government will be proposing, including those measures announced by the Team Clean, that will have employment opportunities such as maintaining the buildings and improving the cleanliness of Hong Kong, Leung said.

On top of this, the government has a program to relaunch the Hong Kong economy and has earmarked 1 billion HK dollars (US$128 million) to do that.

"Through these activities, we hope to increase domestic consumption as well as increasing tourism and foreign investments in Hong Kong. All of these, in the medium term, will create more job opportunities for our people," Leung said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2003)