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Following is the transcript of the media session by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food (Designate), Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, today (June 24) at the Central Government Offices:

Reporter: 5 years...portfolio....?

Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food (Designate): Certainly Mr Tung has said that we will be concentrating our work in the next few months, for the government, to look at what are the major policies we need to deal with in the next 5 years. So, that question is a bit premature. Obviously in my areas of work, in health, welfare and food, there are many many contentious areas and every issue of the work also touches each citizen in Hong Kong. So those are very sensitive and contentious areas. There's a lot of work to be done. But it doesn't mean that we can't improve things even though there are no major policy changes. I think we need to look at more macro and more micro policies. If certain things that can be done incrementally and in an evolutionary manner that will improve that policy area, we will certainly go ahead and do it. But there are certainly more macro policy areas which are very contentious, like the review of the social security systems, the health financing system where we need to prepare the community, we need to consult them, we need to look at various options and discuss the options, so that there is a general consensus in the community before they can be implemented effectively and successfully. So those are the more contentious areas that the government will be looking at. Because we will then have to prioritize which are the ones that need to be done in the next 5 years, which are the ones that we need to manage to process, which are the ones that do not need to be done in the next 5 years. I think these will be in the discussions of the new secretaries with the Chief Executive in the next couple of months.

Reporter: ...approach work about food and environment given that you are less familiar with those aspects...

Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food (Designate): When I first took on my job as Secretary for Health and Welfare, I had no experience on welfare. Obviously I had experience of dealing with some of the interface issues on the health side. Because there are many interface issues of health and welfare, I'm familiar with some of the work on the welfare side, but not with welfare policy itself. So I think in any area of work, it is the question of your background, your willingness to understand the topics and the support that you have within the civil service. Because we already have a civil service structure. The permanent secretaries and the department heads are the continuity for the system. So I do not think there should be too much problem. If one is willing to put in time and effort and work in close collaboration with the civil service colleagues, these issues could be dealt with.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)

End/Monday, June 24, 2002

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