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Following is the full text of the speech (English only) by the Financial Secretary, Mr Donald Tsang, at Helping Business Symposium for senior government officials today (Monday):
In the 1999 Budget, I talked a lot about enhancing public sector efficiency and Civil Service Reform. I proposed a number of initiatives to cater for the ever changing needs of Hong Kong. This is because I firmly believe that the public sector, like the rest of the community, should take full advantage of the recession to strengthen its fundamentals. This will in turn help sharpen Hong Kong's competitiveness.
Some of you may remember that I introduced the Helping Business Programme in my first Budget Speech in 1996. I referred to it in the 1997 Budget Speech when I announced my intention to set up a dedicated Business and Services Promotion Unit to take the Programme forward, and again last year when I mentioned some of the achievements to date. This year, I spoke on private sector participation in the provision of public services which is a strand of work that the Unit is heavily involved in.
I can assure you of the total commitment and support from the highest levels of the SAR Government to creating the most business friendly environment in the world. The responsibility for achieving this rests not with the BSPU alone but with each and every one of you, hence this Symposium today. It is a direct follow-up to similar Symposiums we held for Heads of Department and their deputies in November 1997 and in September 1998. In some ways, this Symposium for our middle directorate at about the D2 level is more significant, since we all know who does most of the work and thinking in our Administration.
Let there be no doubt about the plaudits that our Helping Business Programme is receiving from the business community. In letters, in telephone calls, in conversations at cocktail parties and even through e-mails, I am constantly receiving encouraging comments from individual business leaders confirming that our efforts are appreciated and do have a positive impact. But we should not be complacent.
The creators of wealth are our businessmen. The more friendly the environment we create for them, the more quickly we can get our economy back onto its traditional growth trajectory.
We must help businessmen to find ways to do things better, faster and cheaper, to locate new market niches for their products and, most important, to make new and high value added products for the changing world. We must all learn to think on their wave length, and, without spoiling them with subsidies, to act as their partners, their facilitators and not merely their regulators. Mark my advice: Think thrice when you want to say "no" to a creative yet legitimate business proposition which tends to break new ground or create more work for the Administration. Be a smart regulator. Here lies the true meaning of public service.
Accordingly, I am happy to announce the launch of a Helping Business Awards Scheme with prize money of $100,000. Helping business is everyone's business. I want to enlist the help of each and every one of our 180,000 civil servants, including all of you here, in the cause. I want to see you and your staff putting forward practical suggestions on how to help business either in your own area of work or in any other part of Government. BSPU and China Light & Power are putting up cash for the best suggestions. But the best prize of all will already have been won by the community at large: greater awareness throughout the public service of the importance of what we are doing, and the beginning of a change of mindset.
Let us settle back and listen to our speakers. Share their experience and work together with them to help achieve our own objectives by helping business.
End/Monday, March 22, 1999
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