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CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
features, such as a high degree of danger or the need to work irregular hours. It also considered how to refine the way in which data is collected about the movement of wages and salaries in Hong Kong for the purpose of making adjustments to Civil Service pay, and how to evaluate fringe benefits in order to compare the 'pay package' of civil servants with that of employees in the private sector.
Responsibility for the management of the Civil Service lies with the Civil Service Branch of the Government Secretariat. The branch deals with such matters as pay and conditions of service, appointments, staff management, manpower planning, training and discipline and it is also the focal point for consultation with the principal staff associations.
The government attaches great importance to the training of civil servants to improve their operational efficiency, to prepare them for higher responsibilities and to meet the developing manpower requirements of the service. The Civil Service Training Centre provides expert advice to departments on training matters, and also arranges language and management training.
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In September, the Governor opened the first in a series of courses designed to prepare mid-career officers for senior management responsibilities. Each course lasts for 12 weeks and has up to 40 participants, including a few from the private sector.
Advisory Committees
The network of government boards and committees, of which there are 368, is a distinctive feature of the system of government in the territory which seeks to obtain, through consultation with interested groups in the community, the best possible advice on which to base its decisions. Thus advisory bodies of one kind or another are found in nearly all government departments. In general, advisory bodies may be divided into five categories: statutory bodies which give advice to a head of department (such as the Pilotage Advisory Committee); statutory bodies which give advice to the government (such as the district boards); non-statutory bodies which give advice to a head of department (such as the Labour Advisory Board); non-statutory bodies which give advice to the government (such as the Fight Crime Committee); and committees which are executive in nature (such as the Air Transport Licensing Authority).
Government officials and members of the public are represented on these committees the members of the public being appointed on account of their specialist knowledge or expertise, or through their record or interest in contributing to the life of the community. Increasing importance has been attached to the contribution of unofficials to the formu- lation and execution of government policies and, in order to utilise their potential to the full, a systematic and regular monitoring of the composition and effectiveness of these bodies is carried out. The government also broadens the cross-section of representation and encourages the constant inflow of new ideas by maintaining, wherever possible, a reasonable turnover of membership.
Language
Chinese and English are the two official languages of Hong Kong. Chinese is widely used in daily life and English in the fields of commerce, banking, international trade and in the law courts. The majority of Chinese residents speak Cantonese, a South China dialect. Because of the increasing links between Hong Kong and China, Putonghua (Mandarin) is gaining popularity among the local population. Other foreign languages used by the mercantile community or tourists are not widely understood, though trained interpreters speaking Japanese and some European languages are available.
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