Hong Kong  - Scores of construction workers staged a rally in Hong Kong Monday calling for government help after 4,000 of the city's labourers lost their jobs in neighbouring Macau last week.

The workers demanded that major government infrastructure projects be brought forward to prevent mass unemployment in the construction industry as a result of the slowdown.

The rally came after 4,000 Hong Kong workers were among 11,000 laid off in the gambling enclave of Macau last week as casino building works were suspended because of the global financial crisis.

Marching to government offices Monday, the workers called on the territory's Beijing-appointed officials to fast-track a series of major infrastructure projects scheduled to begin in two years.

They warned that Hong Kong workers faced a long period of unemployment unless the projects were rescheduled to ease the impact of the global crisis.

Hong Kong's labour secretary, Matthew Cheung, responding to the rally, said the government saw job creation as a "priority" and would launch a number of smaller projects to ease unemployment.

Asked about the bigger infrastructure projects, the territory's deputy leader Henry Tang said on Friday that the government would speed up whatever major projects it could.

Hong Kong has been badly hit by the global economic crisis so far with property prices falling sharply and the Hang Seng Index shedding more than 50 per cent of its value since the beginning of 2008. (dpa)