HONG KONG – More than half of the talents who moved to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region through its Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) have been in employment, according to the city’s labor chief.

The scheme received over 116,000 applications, as of December last year, and approved nearly 92,000. Of those approved applicants, more than 75,000 have already arrived in Hong Kong with their families, Chris Sun Yuk-han said while replying to a related at the Legislative Council on Wednesday.

The talents in employment mainly took up managerial and professional jobs with median monthly employment earnings of about HK$50,000.

The monthly employment earnings of about a quarter of the talents reach HK$100,000 or above, said the secretary for labor and welfare.

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“In addition, nearly 20 percent of their spouses have also taken up employment, mostly engaged in high-skilled jobs,” he said.

Surveys conducted by the Labour and Welfare Bureau showed that the entrants under the scheme, which was launched at the end of 2022, and their spouses contribute directly to Hong Kong's economy.

“More than half of them are aged under 40, with many bringing their young children to settle in Hong Kong,” he said, adding that this adds new impetus to the local labor force and brings about positive impact on Hong Kong's demographic structure.

With the first batch of visas under the TTPS scheduled to start expiring at the end of December last year, the Immigration Department, from Nov 1, 2024, allowed the TTPS entrants to apply for extension of stay three months before the expiry of their limit of stay.

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“While trawling for talent, the government also focuses on retaining talent,” said Sun, adding that the chief executive’s 2024 Policy Address has set a key performance indicator of approving at least 50,000 visa extension applications annually for talent from 2025 to 2027.