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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the stand-up session given by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, at the Central Government Offices today (December 20) after meeting civil service unions:
Chief Executive: I am pleased to have met representatives of civil service staff unions today to discuss the challenges facing Hong Kong, including economic restructuring and the fiscal deficit problem.
I met the Principal Officials, Permanent Secretaries and Department Heads about two weeks ago to discuss these issues. And I shall be meeting another group of directorate officers tomorrow. The Secretary for the Civil Service has also been holding meetings with colleagues in the civil service.
Our colleagues are fully aware that we have to tackle the fiscal deficit in three areas: to make the best effort to revive the economy, to strictly control expenditure, and to raise revenue appropriately.
In the area of controlling expenditure, I have announced earlier that we will, as a working target, reduce our public operating expenditure by $20 billion within five years. In this endeavour, civil servants are our key partner. We must share this responsibility and make concerted efforts to achieve the goal. Indeed, the facts show that our civil servants are positive and forward-looking. In the past few years, civil servants actively participated in the enhanced productivity programme. Even though the size of the civil service has been reduced, services to the public have improved substantially in terms of quantity and quality.
On the question of pay adjustment, I know it is a matter of concern to our colleagues. I have stressed at the meeting today that the Government has yet to make a decision, and any adjustment would be dealt with on the basis of a fair, reasonable and lawful mechanism.
Finally, I wish to say that today I have listened very carefully to the views of our civil service colleagues on the problem of controlling expenditure. I encourage the management to keep working closely with colleagues to identify ways to achieve savings. I hope that working together, we can resolve the problem now facing us.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
End/Friday, December 20, 2002
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