The Hong Kong economy has been constantly going through a period of restructuring over the past years, government economist Kwok Kwok-cheun said yesterday.

There emerged a number of high value-added sectors and high-paid jobs, thus further widening the wage gap between the rich and the poor in Hong Kong.

Speaking after the meeting of the Committee on Economic Development and Economic Co-operation with the Mainland under the Commission on Strategic Development, he said Hong Kong is now enjoying high economic growth and low inflation, while unemployment has dropped from the record high 8.6 percent to 4.4 percent currently.

"We have found that the number of high valued-added jobs is growing very fast yet the number of low-end jobs is growing slowly, showing that Hong Kong has gone through a period of economic restructuring. In fact, the salary of the high valued-added jobs is rising very fast, but that of the low-end jobs is rising rather slowly and the situation was particularly bad for them during the economic downturn from 1998 to 2003," he said.

Kwok, however, added the manpower mismatch problem was serious as many people had pointed out. In fact, much of the problem was attributed to sluggish construction and retail sectors.

"For a long time, globalization and economic integration with the mainland created high value-added jobs. But when economy improves, the low-income people will also get benefit. So economic development is not only good for overall employment but it will also benefit employment and income of the low-income people," he said.

He further pointed out that an analysis showed that majority of the lowest earning group, with a monthly income of no more than HK$4,000, over the past decade was elderly people with little skills retiring from their jobs. "To deal with the problem, we have to provide them retirement benefits rather than jobs," he said.

Kwok admitted that wage disparity would be a threat to social harmony.

He, however, added: "Giving out sweeteners (economic concessions) will yield no economic benefits in the long term and nothing but adverse effects. So what we must do is to promote economic development and employment so as to give them the tools to 'catch fish' instead of giving fish to them."