Artificial intelligence specialists, medical practitioners and construction workers are among the new professions on the SAR’s updated talent list, which highlights professions Hong Kong needs most.

The list, first created in 2018 to lure overseas professionals to the territory, will be expanded from the current 13 job types to 51, including those under the performing arts, development and construction, healthcare services, and financial services industries.

Newly-added occupations like nurses, doctors, dentists, architects and land surveyors have been included in the list to ease a manpower crunch in the medical and construction sectors.

The changes will apply immediately to the General Employment Policy, the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals, and the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme.

Under the first two schemes, employers who wish to fill vacancies from the listed professional fields can be exempted from taking a market availability test, while qualified applicants can receive additional points under the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme’s scoring system.

Speaking to reporters at the Legislative Council, labour chief Chris Sun said he is confident that the government will be able to attract talented people from around the world.

“The overall KPI [key performance indicator] we set for ourselves on the talent side is to attract every year, from this year onwards and for the next two years... 35,000 talents and they are expected to stay in Hong Kong at least for 12 months.

“We are confident that we are going to meet this target for this year, having regard to the very positive response to the various schemes we have put in place to attract talent from out of Hong Kong.”

But Sun stressed that applicants in the medical and construction industries must meet certain requirements before joining the workforce, such as obtaining a university degree and passing relevant exams.