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Constitution and Administration
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HONG KONG is administered by the Hong Kong Government, and its administration has developed from the basic pattern applied in all British-governed territories overseas. The head of the Hong Kong Government is the Governor. Under the terms of the Joint Declaration of the British and Chinese Governments on the question of Hong Kong which entered into force on May 27, 1985, Hong Kong will become, with effect from July 1, 1997, a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
The Governor has the ultimate direction of the administration of Hong Kong. He is advised on the development of policy and other matters by an Executive Council. Legislation is enacted and funds provided by the Legislative Council, the members of which also debate policy and question the administration. There are two municipal councils, the Urban Council and the Regional Council, which have a statutory responsibility to provide public health, cultural and recreational services in their respective geographical areas. In addition, 19 District Boards cover the territory. They advise the administration on the implementation of policies at the district level and provide an effective forum for public consultation.
In May 1987, the government published a Green Paper entitled 'The 1987 Review of Developments in Representative Government', which sought the views of the community on whether the system of representative government should be further developed in 1988 and, if so, in what manner. An independent survey office was set up to collect public opinion on the Green Paper and the response was unprecedented: over 131 000 written submissions were received.
On February 10, 1988, a White Paper entitled 'The Development of Representative Government: The Way Forward' was published. It set out the government's decisions on the next steps in the development of representative government. The decisions took full account of all the views expressed by the public during the period of the review and enshrined the following four objectives of the government:
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that the system of representative government should continue to evolve to suit Hong Kong's circumstances;
that its development should be prudent and gradual;
that any reforms should have the widest possible support so as to command the confidence of the community as a whole; and
that the system in place before 1997 should permit a smooth transition in 1997 and a high degree of continuity thereafter.
The White Paper contained a number of major decisions in relation to elections to the Legislative Council (including, in particular, the introduction of 10 directly elected seats in 1991); the composition of the Legislative Council; the presidency of the Legislative Council; the role and composition of the two Municipal Councils and the District Boards; the