After the Government's announcement of the proposals on improving governance at the district level on May 2, the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Erick Tsang Kwok-wai, and the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Miss Alice Mak, immediately commenced explanatory and publicity work for various sectors. The two Directors of Bureaux today (May 8) began to brief different political parties on the proposals to solicit their support.

     Mr Tsang and Miss Mak hosted three briefing sessions this afternoon and briefed representatives of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and the New People's Party respectively on the objectives and benefits of the proposals on improving governance at the district level. The benefits of the proposals include: enhancing the functions of District Councils (DCs) to allow the Government to have more effective planning and implementation of district services, manifest executive-led governance and better serve the public; optimising the composition of DCs and the methods of selection of DC members to allow persons with professional knowledge and experience, who are patriotic and have an affection for Hong Kong, to enter the DCs through multiple channels and serve the public; introducing an eligibility review mechanism to fully implement the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong" and safeguard national security, and return the DCs to the livelihood-oriented positioning; introducing a monitoring mechanism of DC members' performance to ensure that every DC member delivers due diligence and meets public expectations; strengthening the district governance structure to formulate and command appropriate measures in response to the demand of the public in an effective and timely manner.

     They also pointed out that the Government is going full steam ahead to prepare the District Councils (Amendment) Bill 2023 and hopes to submit it to the Legislative Council (LegCo) for scrutiny as soon as possible. The Government targets to secure the LegCo's passage of the Bill before the summer recess of the LegCo this year so that the DC Ordinary Election can be held at the end of this year and the seventh-term DCs can take office on January 1 next year as scheduled.

     The two Directors of Bureaux had in-depth discussions and exchanges with members of the political parties. The two Directors of Bureaux also encouraged them to brief members of the public on the proposals so as to deepen public understanding of the benefits brought by the proposals.

     Since the announcement of the proposals on improving governance at the district level, Mr Tsang and Miss Mak attended various radio and television programmes, briefing sessions and media interviews to brief the public, media, Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress, Hong Kong members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and different political parties respectively on the proposals. In addition, Government officials also visited street booths in various districts to appeal to the public to support the proposals.

Ends/Monday, May 8, 2023
Issued at HKT 19:30

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