The surge of Chinese mainland visitors since the implementation of the Individual Visit Scheme is benefiting not only traditional tourist areas but also general retail business, said Hong Kong Acting Chief Executive Donald Tsang on Friday.

Tsang made the remarks while visiting North District. He visited the Landmark North, the largest shopping mall in Sheung Shui, and came across Chinese mainland tourists in town for the Labor Day Golden Week Holidays. He learned that about a third of the mall's 70,000 to 80,000 daily patrons are mainlanders.

It is reported that in the first five days of the Chinese Mainland Golden Week Holidays, over 260,000 Chinese mainland tourists entered Hong Kong for visits, of them 150,000 individual tourists, about 34 percent up over the same period last year.

The Individual Visit Scheme, which was implemented since the second half of 2003, has been extended to 32 Chinese mainland cities.

Tsang then visited the Women's Development Association Rita Liu Multi-Services Center at Sheung Shui's Choi Yuen Estate, which runs retraining programs funded by the Employees Retraining Board to help jobless people aged 30 or more.

"I am sure on-the-job training of this kind will put graduates in an advantageous position in the job market. We need the concerted efforts of various parties to nurture our younger generation to play a contributory role in society," Tsang said.

Source: Xinhua