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's acting chief executive on Friday.

Donald Tsang made the remarks while visiting Landmark North, the largest shopping mall in Sheung Shui, where 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 mainland's weeklong May Day holiday, over 260,000 mainland tourists entered Hong Kong. Of them, 150,000 were individual tourists, up about 34 percent on the same period last year.

The Individual Visit Scheme, implemented since the second half of 2003, has been extended to 32 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.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, during the May Day holiday national retail sales volume reached 240 billion yuan (US$29 billion), 17 percent more than the same period last year, whilst the catering industry's increased by 20 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2005)