********************************************************

The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Mr Joseph Yam, today (Thursday) congratulated Mr Donald Tsang on his appointment as Chief Secretary for Administration. He paid tribute to Mr Tsang's five-and-a-half years service as Financial Secretary. He also welcomed the appointment of Mr Antony Leung Kam-chung as Hong Kong's next Financial Secretary.

Mr Yam said that Mr Tsang had served as Financial Secretary during an extraordinarily eventful and challenging period. "The historic handover on 1 July 1997 was swiftly followed by a financial crisis that destabilised the region and brought recession and uncertainty to Hong Kong," said Mr Yam. "Our ability as a city to weather the crisis and to withstand the severe attacks on our financial system has owed much to Donald Tsang's able helmsmanship. It is a remarkable testament to his good judgement and determination that, despite the intense stress on our economy in the late nineties, Hong Kong's fundamentals are now as healthy as they were at the beginning of his term, if not more so. Donald Tsang has now been called to apply his skills as head of the civil service at a time of change and challenge. While we in the HKMA shall miss the wise guidance he has given us over the years, we all wish him every success in his important new duties, for which he is so obviously well qualified," Mr Yam added.

"Antony Leung will bring to the office of Financial Secretary a wealth of experience in both the public and private sectors," said Mr Yam. "Having been a Member of the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee since 1993, Mr Leung has been intimately connected with the work of the HKMA for the whole eight years of its existence. He has made considerable contributions to the development of the HKMA's policies and programmes. My colleagues and I in the HKMA look forward to continuing to work closely with him and to benefiting from his guidance in his new capacity as Financial Secretary. We wish him every success and shall give him every possible support," Mr Yam added.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or

Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

End/Thursday, February 15, 2001

NNNN