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The Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, today (June 27) appointed 67 non-official members and four official members to the Commission on Strategic Development.
The Chief Executive said that being the most important advisory body led by him personally, the commission had proved to be an effective forum for the Administration to collect community views on a wide range of issues of strategic importance to the development of Hong Kong, such as Hong Kong¡¦s international competitiveness, population policy and creation of employment. "The commission has also served as a useful platform to promote discussion within the community on various important issues, such as the issue of electing the Chief Executive and forming the Legislative Council by universal suffrage,¡¨ Mr Tsang said.
¡§The new term commission will continue to explore the way forward for Hong Kong¡¦s future development from a macro and long-term perspective. We believe that the commission will continue to gauge a wide range of community views to help the formulation of major policies on the long-term development of Hong Kong.¡¨
With a view to allowing a more flexible and in-depth discussion on strategic issues related to Hong Kong¡¦s long-term development, the Chief Executive announced that the new term of commission would be restructured to allow discussion of strategic issues to be taken up by a single forum chaired by himself. As and when necessary, task groups or working groups could be set up to study specific strategic issues for consideration of the commission.
¡§The commission will continue to reflect and gauge a wide range of community views early in response to calls for new Government policy initiatives,¡¨ Mr Tsang said.
The 67 non-official members are drawn from a broad cross section of the community comprising mainly professionals, academics, businessmen, politicians, and prominent labour and media personalities. The four official members are the Chief Secretary for Administration, the Financial Secretary, the Head of the Central Policy Unit and the Director of the Chief Executive¡¦s Office. All members will serve for a two-year term starting from July 1.
The Central Policy Unit will continue to provide secretariat service to the Commission and work in tandem with relevant bureaus on various policy issues. The full membership of the commission, a brief introduction of individual members and the terms of reference of the commission are at Annex.
Ends/Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Issued at HKT 17:04
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