Linguistic link: Standing Committee on Language Education & Research chairman Michael Tien and popstar Kelly Chen join forces to promote better workplace English.

An English-proficient workforce is key to recovering Hong Kong's service-oriented economy and maintaining our competitive edge.

This was the message from Standing Committee on Language Education & Research chairman Michael Tien.

Launching a new round of publicity for the Workplace English Campaign today, Mr Tien said more emphasis will be put on the need for employees to brush up their English.

A new series of TV programmes on the use of English in different workplace settings will be screened later this year to arouse greater public interest in learning the language.

New TV announcements featuring popstar Kelly Chen as the campaign ambassador, and employees from the service sector will also be launched to encourage the workforce to join the campaign.

The announcements will be aired from tomorrow night.

Ms Chen called on the employees to take advantage of the opportunity on offer as the campaign will give them greater confidence and more recognition.

So far about 23,000 applications for the campaign's funding scheme have been approved since its launch in 2000.

Over 12,000 employees have passed the specified international tests after training and received $19 million from the scheme in reimbursement of course and test fees.

Another 8,000 employees are either undergoing training or having their applications processed for reimbursement.