Following is the English translation of the opening remarks by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, at the special meeting of the Legislative Council Finance Committee this afternoon (April 13):

Chairman,

     Among the matters related to the civil service in the 2026-27 Draft Estimates of Expenditure, I would like to focus my introduction on the following items.

     The first item is the civil service establishment. The entire Government has continued to implement the fiscal consolidation programme and strictly contain the growth of its operating expenditure, which has achieved certain results. In line with the Productivity Enhancement Programme and in order to optimise the use of manpower resources, we will reduce the civil service establishment by 2 per cent each in 2026-27 and 2027-28 basing on the establishment of the preceding financial year. Together with the establishment reduced under the zero-growth policy for the civil service establishment in previous years, a cumulative deletion of over 10 000 posts is expected within this term of Government.

     All bureaux and their departments (B/Ds) have considered such factors as the overall service demand, operational needs and vacancy situations for making arrangements for the 2 per cent reduction in the civil service establishment in 2026-27. The overall civil service establishment will be reduced to an estimated level of about 188 000 posts by April 1, 2026.

     I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that the reduction in establishment is the most direct way to reduce the actual expenditure, as the financial provisions for personal emoluments allocated to B/Ds are calculated based on the establishment rather than the strength. With the reduction in establishment, the provisions allocated to them will be directly reduced.

     I understand that concerns have been raised about the impact of the reduction in establishment on the development of large-scale projects and the efficiency of daily services. I would like to take this opportunity to clarify the matter. Reduction in the civil service establishment is achieved by optimising manpower arrangements through reorganisation and reprioritisation of work while maintaining the efficiency of public services. All posts will be reviewed to ascertain the necessity to retain them. For posts that are essential to the provision of public services, they will be retained. Departments with actual needs can still apply for additional manpower. For instance, we will deploy internal manpower and create time-limited posts as necessary for the preparation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Finance Ministers' Meeting 2026.

     As for civil service pay adjustment, we are taking forward the relevant work of the 2026-27 civil service pay adjustment in a gradual and orderly manner in accordance with the established mechanism. The 2026 Pay Trend Survey (PTS) is currently under way, and the results are expected to be available in May. The Chief Executive in Council will make a decision on the 2026-27 civil service pay adjustment arrangements having due regard to all relevant factors, including the state of Hong Kong's economy, changes in the cost of living, the Government's fiscal position, the net pay trend indicators derived from the PTS, the pay claims of the staff sides and civil service morale.

     The next item is the work on civil service training. The Civil Service College (CSC) will continue to implement the Governance Talents Development Programme to cultivate a pool of governance talent who love the country and Hong Kong and are familiar with the national development and international landscape as well as local circumstances. In addition, the CSC will continue to take forward various initiatives to strengthen the governance capabilities of the civil service. On AI, the CSC will collaborate with the Digital Policy Office to provide training and online learning resources themed around AI to enable civil servants to better grasp the relevant knowledge. The CSC will also continue to enhance elements related to AI and technology application in leadership training for civil servants, enabling leaders to guide their departments in adopting AI more widely to improve public services. The relevant estimated expenditure for 2026-27 is approximately $259 million.

     As for medical benefits, the Government will continue to honour its contractual obligation as the employer and provide medical benefits for serving civil servants, pensioners and other eligible persons. The medical services provided by the Hospital Authority (HA) as part of the medical benefits have been included in the HA's overall provision. Regarding Families Clinics and dental services provided by the Department of Health, on top of its regular services, the provision will continue to cover the pilot scheme on provision of dental scaling services via private dental organisations for some civil service eligible persons, the pilot scheme on receiving designated dental services at a medical institution in Shenzhen and the seasonal influenza vaccination pilot scheme.

     The Civil Service Bureau will continue to take forward various policies and initiatives, such as expanding the functions of the Public Service Commission to cover Tier II investigation under the Heads of Department Accountability System, and formulating enhancement measures to develop a more rigorous civil service performance appraisal system for differentiating staff performance more effectively.

     Chairman, this is the end of my introduction. I would welcome questions from Members.

Ends/Monday, April 13, 2026
Issued at HKT 16:34

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