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Enhancing the Quality of Public Services
119. Rising civic awareness has increased public demands for accountability. In face of this challenge, the civil service has been as devoted to duty as ever and spared no effort to meet the needs of the community. I am most grateful to all civil servants for their professionalism. I am also proud of their outstanding performance.
120. While we have kept on improving the quality of public services, there have been occasions when we might not have met people's expectations. We must remain humble at all times and be open to suggestions for improvement. To ensure that public services move with the times and respond quickly to citizens' needs, I have asked Heads of Departments to review the implementation of their performance pledges and to improve their complaint handling mechanisms in the coming year.
121. In addition, we will study the reports of such institutes as the Heritage Foundation of the US, Fraser Institute of Canada, World Bank and World Economic Forum on global competitiveness, economic freedom and business environment to identify areas for improvement. We will promptly formulate measures to upgrade the quality of government services in line with the standards of other advanced economies.
Public Engagement
122. The Government has been seeking community views through advisory and elected bodies such as District Councils and the Legislative Council. I have asked all my politically-appointed officials to reach out to the community more proactively and to visit districts to listen to public views and work with stakeholders. I will continue to promote the concept of public engagement within the Government, and provide training for civil servants on communication with the civil society. With the development of new media, many citizens now voice their views on the Internet. The Government will collect public opinion from the Internet more actively.
National Education
123. Apart from encouraging our people to care about, and participate in, local affairs, it is the Government's duty to help everyone, especially our younger generations, to know more about our fast-developing motherland. This year, we mark the 30th anniversary of China's opening up and reform. Next year, we will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. We will launch a series of activities for this important occasion to enhance young people's understanding of our country. This will help foster a strong sense of national identity in the era of globalisation.
124. It is the HKSAR Government's established policy to promote national education. We will continue to adopt a three-pronged approach in this regard: helping students better understand the history and development of our country through curriculum planning; providing students with opportunities to join study and exchange programmes to heighten their sense of national identity; and, encouraging students to contribute to our country's development.
125. In the past year, we organised lectures and training programmes for teachers and students, and produced web-based teaching materials on the opportunities and challenges in our country's development. Topics included the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the staging of the Olympic Equestrian Events in Hong Kong, China's first spacewalk by astronauts in its space mission of Shenzhou-7, the 30th anniversary of China's opening up and reform, and disaster relief and reconstruction efforts for the Sichuan earthquake.
126. The Government will devote additional resources to promoting national education. For example, we will offer more opportunities for Hong Kong students to join Mainland study trips and exchange programmes, and enhance professional training and exchange programmes for teachers. In this way, both teachers and students will see for themselves the rapid development of our country. Currently, we subsidise about 5,000 secondary students to participate in such trips and programmes each year. We will increase the quota to 37,000 to include junior secondary and upper primary students. To promote national education in a more strategic and systematic manner, we will create a national education platform to be known as "Passing on the Torch" by co-ordinating the work of various voluntary groups.
127. We will continue to subsidise Mainland study trips for youths. Separately, we will allocate additional resources to launch a National Education Funding Scheme for Young People to subsidise and support large-scale national education activities targeting mainly youngsters. This is to give our young people a chance to see for themselves the development of our country and to grow to love our motherland and Hong Kong.
(To be continued)
Ends/Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:32
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