The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Clement Cheung, visited the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) today (April 7) to learn more about its work and to take the opportunity to meet colleagues of the department.

     Accompanied by the Permanent Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Thomas Chow, Mr Cheung first met with the Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Mr Shun Chi-ming, and the directorate staff. He was pleased to note that the HKO is committed to providing people-oriented services in meteorology and related fields to enhance society's capability in natural disaster prevention and response through science, innovation and partnership.
 
    Mr Cheung then spoke with Scientific Officers while touring the TV Studio to better understand their daily work, such as the preparation and production of weather programmes from Monday to Saturday and the weekly educational series "Cool Met Stuff", which disseminates weather forecasts and information on meteorology to the public to raise public awareness of disaster prevention.

     He then visited the Monitoring and Assessment Centre and was briefed by HKO colleagues on environmental radiation monitoring activities in Hong Kong. In the unlikely event of a nuclear accident the Centre will co-ordinate emergency radiation monitoring and carry out accident consequence assessment and, together with other relevant government departments, make recommendations on the necessary countermeasures.

     Mr Cheung also toured the Central Forecasting Office and was briefed on its responsibility for monitoring the weather of Hong Kong round-the-clock and disseminating the latest weather information to the public through various channels.  He was pleased to note that the HKO's Internet service reached 100 billion page views last year, while the total number of downloads of the "MyObservatory" mobile app has exceeded 6.3 million.

     Before concluding his visit, Mr Cheung met staff representatives of various grades at a tea gathering to exchange views on matters that concerned them. He praised colleagues for their efforts, and encouraged them to continue to strive for excellence and to further enhance the services they provide.

Ends/Friday, April 7, 2017
Issued at HKT 18:00

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