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In response to media enquiries on a recent report that the size of the civil service in Hong Kong is too large compared with that in the United Kingdom, the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Joseph WP Wong, said today (September 5) that a closer examination of the figures told a different story.
It has been reported that the UK has a civil service of fewer than 500,000, three times Hong Kong's 180,000, while the population of the UK is eight times that of Hong Kong.
Mr Wong said: "First, in the United Kingdom, the definition of 'civil service' excludes the disciplined services and staff employed by local governments. So policemen, firemen and staff employed by the London city, for example, are not included in the figure of 500,000 civil servants.
"Second, if we were to compare the number of employees paid from the public purse, whether they work in the central or local governments or in the various public bodies in the UK, it would amount to about 5.2 million, or about 18 per cent of the total workforce, based on information known to us. In Hong Kong, our civil service accounts for about five per cent of the workforce while staff in the subvented sector accounts for another five per cent.
"Yet we would not draw the conclusion that our public sector is more efficient than that of the UK because circumstances, requirements and public expectations do vary from place to place.
"The Government has always been conscious of the need to maintain a lean and efficient civil service. This is one of the main objectives of the Civil Service Reform launched in 1999. Since then, we have reduced the size of the civil service by 10 per cent, from about 200,000 in early 2000 to 175,000 at present.
"We aim to further reduce the establishment to 160,000 by 2006-07," said Mr Wong.
He added that according to many reputable international surveys, Hong Kong's civil service was among the best of its kind in the world in terms of integrity and efficiency.
End/Friday, September 5, 2003
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