Development minister Bernadette Linn on Thursday said the first imported construction workers should arrive in the SAR in the fourth quarter of this year, and that contractors can apply to bring workers in starting next week.

Speaking to reporters, Linn said imported workers can fill 47 types of jobs in the industry, including bar-benders, concrete workers, scaffolders, surveying technicians and site supervisors in mainly public sector projects.

She said the job list has the approval of employers and workers sitting on a special committee of the Development Bureau, which was set up in view of the government's plan to bring in a maximum of 12,000 construction workers to ease a manpower shortage.

The official refused to estimate how many construction workers will be imported by the end of the year, adding they have not set quotas for importing specific types of workers.

"We will not have limits for individual jobs under the 12,000 quota for imported workers, because this may not be flexible enough," she said.

"Different types of personnel are needed in different stages of [construction] work. If we set a limit on the number of workers we can bring in for a specific job beforehand, we might not have enough flexibility when there are changes to the projects as they progress."

Contractors can submit applications from July 17 to August 16 and their requests will be processed by mid-October. They will also be able to apply in October and every quarter of the following year.

Linn added construction is being carried out at a Covid isolation facility in Yuen Long, and it should be able to accommodate non-local workers starting from October.