Social issues dominate the Chief Executive's agenda

For the business community, what the address lacked in substance on many of the issues of core business interest, it made up for in style and perhaps even in an enhancement of the public's perception of the administration's immediate objectives.

Measured against the contents of the Chamber's own submission to the Chief Executive's office ahead of the Policy Address, the speech, entitled "Serving the Community, Sharing Common Goals," would have to be regarded as a moderate success.

Many of the issues raised in the Chamber's submission were well covered in Chief Executive's address; others received less attention than the business community might have thought they deserved; and a few more received no mention at all.

The business community in general might, therefore, have been a little disappointed that some of the more purely business issues did not get a better coverage in the address, and these will now probably have to wait until the 2001-2002 Budget to be announced in March next year.

This lack of business focus was hardly a surprise, however. Most of its members had not been expecting too much of direct relevance to business, realising that social issues would be paramount given the community concerns that had arisen in recent months.

Nevertheless, the need to address the broad issue of governance in the SAR was the subject of the entire opening section of the Chamber's pre-address submission and was one of three key issues well-covered in the Chief Executive's policy statement.

The other two were education and tackling the problem of poverty in the SAR. The first of these was also one of the key issues highlighted in the Chamber's Policy Address submission under the heading "Education reform and Human Resource Development."

The second was also mentioned in the Chamber's submission, but under a wide variety of issue headings, such as education, rather than as an issue in its right.

Other key issues in the Chamber submission, which were mentioned in the Chief Executive's address, but on which business would have liked to have heard more and had more detail, were:

* Residential property policy and related land supply issues
* Environment and the quality of life
* Mainland business and economic relations and Pearl River Delta co-operation and development

The key policy initiatives outlined by Mr Tung in his address, undertook to:

Referring to the issue of SAR governance, Mr Tung said several issues had been raised in the recent past including the relationship between the executive and the legislature, accountability of officials and community involvement in public affairs.

Pledging to examine the possibility of improvements in all areas, he said, "Our experience in the three years since reunification fully demonstrates that the executive authorities, legislature and judiciary of the SAR are able to function effectively under the Basic Law.

"In seeking to improve our governance, the priorities are to enhance the accountability of the senior echelon of the executive authorities, to continue to establish an effective and constructive executive-legislature relationship and to encourage greater community participation in public affairs.

"We will continue to act according to the Basic Law and the actual situation in the Hong Kong SAR to make gradual and orderly progress in furthering Hong Kong's constitutional developments."

On the issue of the accountability of senior officials, he said the SAR needed to consider devising a compatible system of appointment for these principal officials and setting out their powers and responsibilities.

At the same time, their role in formulating and implementing government policies under the new system needed to be more clearly defined.

"I appreciate that the people of Hong Kong would like to see the establishment of a comprehensive system of public accountability. A decision will be taken as soon as possible on the basis of our deliberations," he said.

The Chief Executive said that he would examine ways of strengthening communication between the executive authorities and the Legislative Council, to better ensure that policies formulated and Bills submitted would have the support of the legislature.

He expressed concern about changes in community attitudes he had observed, despite the improvements in SAR generally in the past three years.

"People are more inclined to adopt a mood of scepticism, and criticism -- even belittling the capabilities of our own people," he said.

"I am also aware that many of our citizens are tired of this. Most want a society with greater harmony, less hostility, less unnecessary quarrelling, but more rational discussion."

On education, the Chief Executive said that he had stressed from the beginning of his tenure that he would do his best to cultivate the talents Hong Kong needed, but he warned that the education system could no longer meet the challenges of the new age.

The knowledge-based "new economy" needs a large pool of talent equipped with the right skills and creativity. He said improvement would start at the earliest stage, by upgrading the quality of teachers.

"Our objective is that within 10 years, 60 per cent of our senior secondary school leavers will receive tertiary education.

"As education is our most important long-term investment, we are determined to continue to provide the necessary resources. Full implementation of all the plans I have outlined will increase our annual recurrent expenditure on education by about HK$2 billion."

At the same time he indicated that he was pleased that in the past three years there had been profound changes in public awareness in two areas: the knowledge economy and the environment.

"The first change is that people can now better appreciate the importance of innovation and technology," he said.

"Three years ago, there were very few people in Hong Kong who thought about the relationship between technology and economic development. Now it is widely recognised that innovation and technology are essential to enhance productivity for our sustained economic growth."

Commenting on community concerns about the allegedly growing gap between rich and poor, he said, "It is our duty to assist the disadvantaged in society.

"We plan to allocate over HK$2.7 billion in the next two years to finance various measures to help the poor.

"But I must point out once again that the fundamental way to address the poverty problem is to create ample employment opportunities through sustained economic growth on the one hand, and continuously upgrade the quality of people's skills through education on the other.

"We must persevere in our efforts in these areas."

He said greater emphasis on the quality of Hong Kong's environment and the concept of sustainable development had formed another major change in public awareness since he had declared his commitment to preventing and reducing environmental pollution.

He listed the government's achievements to date in these key areas and pledged to re-examine the issue of electronic road pricing to reduce car usage and improve the SAR's air quality.

"We will again examine the use of an electronic road pricing scheme, not to generate additional revenue, but to encourage effective use of vehicles so as to reduce emissions and traffic congestion as far as possible," he said.

"Before making any decision, we will carefully consider the issues, especially concerns about personal privacy."

He forecast that extra jobs would be created as part of the campaign to clean up the environment and that a new Clean Hong Kong Campaign would be launched at the end of the year to help bring about an overall improvement to the city environment.

Referring to civil service reform, Mr Tung said that enhanced productivity arising from the reforms would result in total savings this year and in the previous year of HK$1.8 billion in recurrent expenditure.

Savings of HK$2 billion were expected in each of the next two years, he said.

Remaining measures to be introduced include a performance-based reward system and a provident fund scheme designed for new recruits.

The civil service needed to keep pace with the times, he said, but extensive consultations would be held and communications maintained with the staff side in a thorough, open and transparent manner.

On health, he said the present health care system was becoming unsustainable as a result of rapid advances in medical science, an ageing population and the ever-changing needs and aspirations of the community.

"Since the release of the report of the Harvard consultants last year, we have listened carefully to opinions from all sectors of the community," he said.

He said a further report setting out future policy directions would be published for further public consultation.

"A series of proposals will be put forward, some of which are likely to be implemented shortly while others will be carried out in phases over the next 10 years," he said. "The Government will proceed after careful deliberation and full consultation on the issue."

On housing, the Chief Executive said that policy is now heading in the right direction.

He said more flexible initiatives had been introduced into public housing. These included the sale of public rental flats and the introduction of the well-received Home Starter Loan Scheme.

In its own immediate media reaction to the Policy Address, the Chamber welcomed the Chief Executive's commitment to more effective communication of its policies to the broad community, the pledge to undertake full consultation on major policy issues and the desire to work more closely with the new Legislative Council.

"Although short on initiatives directly relevant to business, this year's Policy Address was notable for dealing with important issues of immediate concern to the broader community, as well as the business sector," Chamber Director Dr Eden Woon said.

"The Chamber agrees that the best way of dealing with some of the social issues affecting the SAR - unemployment, the gap between rich and poor, the needs of the elderly and the young - is sustained economic expansion.

"It does, however, appreciate that the initiatives announced yesterday in enhancing employment and education prospects, training and retraining, and upgrading the welfare system will help overcome community concerns on these issues."

Dr Woon said the Chamber also welcomed the Chief Executive's commitment to improved governance, greater accountability in government and the commitment to an evolutionary approach to constitutional development in coming years.

"We were particularly pleased to see some of the issues raised in the Chamber's submission on the Chief Executive's Policy Address, including better communication of government policies, were taken up in the actual address," Dr Woon said.

"They also included the education and governance initiatives, the emphasis on the importance of innovation and technology, faster improvements in the environment, housing and land policies and the closer cross-border co-operation, including working with the Mainland on infrastructure development and environment improvement.

"Like the Chief Executive, we believe that 'Hong Kong is in the right place at the right time.' We believe that the emergence of China on the world stage, its imminent entry to the WTO and its plans for developing the west of the country will offer tremendous opportunities for Hong Kong and the SAR business community."