CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
also arranged to give officers first-hand experience of China. The existing management development programmes have also been expanded to include a China dimension.
An important component of the training and development offered to senior public servants is the three-month programme run by the Senior Staff Course Centre. The centre emphasises 'learning from doing'. Each year participants examine about 100 problems, some with significant policy implications. Study tours to other countries in the region help to broaden perspectives and foster much goodwill with host governments.
Government Records Service
The Government Records Service is responsible for the broad management of government records.
It undertakes two different but related programmes: the Records Management Office for a record management programme to handle records at their current and non-current stages and the Public Records Office for an archives administration programme to look after the preservation and use of permanent records.
A record is the basic unit of administration and its appropriate management will have a significant impact on the efficiency of government business. It is the responsibility of the Records Management Office to oversee and develop a comprehensive system concerned with everything that happens to records from their productive ‘life' as a means of accom- plishing the government agency's functions to their 'death' or destruction as non-current records when all useful purposes have been served. The aim is to have fewer records to store, better records to use and more economical record management costs to finance.
The Public Records Office is one of the largest local sources of information for historical and other studies relating to Hong Kong.
Language
The official languages of Hong Kong are English and Chinese. The Official Languages Ordinance enacted in 1974 provides that both languages possess equal status and enjoy equality of use for the purposes of communication between the government or any public officer and members of the public. Correspondence in Chinese from the public is replied to by government departments either in Chinese or in English accompanied by a Chinese version. Major reports and publications of public interest issued by the government are available in both languages. Simultaneous interpretation is provided at meetings of the Legislative Council, Urban Council, Regional Council other government boards and committees where English and Chinese are used. A Bilingual Laws Advisory Committee was set up in October 1988 to advise the Governor in Council, among other things, on the authentication of Chinese texts of existing laws which are being translated. With the declaration of the Chinese version of Chapter 1 of the Law of Hong Kong, the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance, made authentic in July 1992, the Chinese version of other existing laws are being processed sequentially for authentication. Since April 1989, all new principal legislation has been enacted in both English and Chinese. Cantonese (the Guangzhou dialect) is the most commonly-spoken dialect among the local Chinese community while Putonghua (Mandarin) has gained popularity as closer ties with China are being developed. English continues to be used not only by the expatriate community but also by a wide cross-section of the local community in commercial, financial and professional circles.
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