Patten promises curb on foreign workers

Hong Kong - The Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, has extended an olive branch to the colony's first fully elected legislature by promising to curb the import of foreign workers from next year. Relations with China, which takes over Hong Kong in mid-1997, took a back seat to domestic issues in the Governor's two-hour annual policy address.

Mr Patten proposed a new labour scheme, to start on 1 January 1996, that would allow for a maximum of 5,000 foreigners employed under the programme to be working in the colony at any one time, compared with 25,000 now. Reuter