Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun on Saturday played down concerns that importing foreign carers to work in Hong Kong will put local workers at a disadvantage.

In Chief Executive John Lee's maiden Policy Address, he suggested allowing all care homes for elderly and disabled people to recruit staff outside the SAR to solve a manpower shortage in the industry. At present, only private care homes can employ non-local carers and numbers are limited.

On Tuesday, the Federation of Trade Unions expressed strong opposition to the plan and said it would hurt carers locally. The unionists said low wages and poor benefits were responsible for a decline in the labour force in the SAR.

But Sun told reporters after a radio programme that local workers would not be left at a disadvantage under the proposed scheme.

"The basic starting point is we are going to accord priority to local workers. But given all our efforts, if we are still unable to fill the shortage, we have to consider importing a suitable number of outside workers to help," he said.

The labour minister also expressed confidence that the government would meet the target set out by the chief executive of luring tens of thousands of talented individuals from the mainland and overseas to move to Hong Kong.

"From next year onwards until 2025, we should be able to attract at least every year 35,000 talents to fill the gap in the local market," Sun said.

As part of the territory's talent trawl, the chief executive had proposed special visa arrangements and tax concessions on home purchases.