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The public rates the Government's customer service higher than the private sector's, the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Henry Tang, said today (March 27) at the opening of the Public Sector Reform Conference 2008 organised by the Efficiency Unit and the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau.
In the third of three public opinion surveys held over the past year, the public rated the overall customer service of the civil service at 6.8 compared to the private sector at 6.7.
"This marks the first time that the public sector customer service rating has exceeded that of the private sector, and is indicative of growing civil service awareness of the importance of meeting citizens' expectations," Mr Tang noted.
While applauding the civil service for its performance, Mr Tang said this must continue to improve to meet the dual challenges of competition and rising expectations and urged civil servants to be bold and innovative in their work.
"We must be citizen-centric and design joined-up services around citizens' needs and convenience. We also need to regulate smarter and learn good practices from the private sector," said Mr Tang.
The purpose of the Public Sector Reform Conference 2008 is to keep senior civil servants informed of public sector reform developments in the key areas of customer service, joined-up government, learning from the private sector, and service design and branding.
Apart from Mr Tang, the Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, and the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Frederick Ma, joined a distinguished list of local and overseas speakers.
Over 1,000 senior civil servants and invited guests from the private sector, NGOs and academia were expected to attend the conference at the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine.
Conference details including the speakers' CVs and abstracts can be found on the Efficiency Unit website at www.eu.gov.hk
Ends/Thursday, March 27, 2008
Issued at HKT 16:03
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