L
7
We've also been encouraging greater contacts between the civil service in Hong Kong and their opposite numbers in China. There is a regular and steady flow of civil servants in both directions. In the last month I think we've had five Secretaries from Hong Kong actually in Peking or China; there were times when I think we were more likely to get a quorum for senior officials meetings in China than in Hong Kong, but I think it is useful to see those contacts continually increased.
1
What can Chinese officials do to help provide reassurance and help increase confidence? Well, what we should all be trying to do is laid out very specifically in the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law but we have to behave not only speak but behave as well - in a way which clearly recognises our joint commitment to the spirit as well as the letter of the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.
There are opportunities for Chinese officials to do that. I'm told that Director Lu Ping is coming to Hong Kong in May for another visit and I unreservedly welcome him. I think we'd all like it if he came even more regularly to Hong Kong. I've made it clear to him, once again, that I think we should meet our obligations under the Memorandum of Understanding on the Airport, signed by the Prime Ministers of China and the United Kingdom, to meet. He knows perfectly well that whenever he would like to do so, I am available to meet him. I think the community is surprised that that doesn't happen. They look around the world, they see everywhere officials meeting to discuss difficult arguments whether in Ireland or Bosnia or other trouble spots around the world, and they wonder what it is that sets Chinese officials apart from what officials everywhere else do. But regardless of whether Director Lu Ping meets me, we will want to treat him with courtesy and we will want to treat him as positively as possible. And just as I have made it clear that I would be happy to see him, so my Chief Secretary, the Hong Kong Government's Chief Secretary would be perfectly happy to see him and we've made it clear that she would be happy to see him with a group of her senior Secretaries and colleagues so that they could discuss with him matters of concern to the future of Hong Kong. We've made that proposal and I hope it will meet with a positive response because it is through those sort of contacts whether formal or informal that I am sure we can get a better understanding of one another and I hope that Director Lu Ping and his colleagues will get a better understanding of what the concerns of the civil service in Hong Kong are from time to time. I don't think that we should exaggerate the problem. The wastage rate in the civil service is at present very low, though rather higher in senior ranks of the directorate. Recruitment is good but there are worries about the future and I think it's incumbent on all of us to try to deal with
them.
Dr Conrad Lam (through interpreter): Mr President, in his reply the Governor pointed out one fact and that is, to boost civil servants' morale civil servants will need to continue to make decisions. Yesterday, the civil servants decided not to respond to Miss Loh's motion. I don't think this will help in boosting morale. According to my observation, in reply to our questions during LegCo sittings they tend to be very eloquent but yesterday when we talked about the CCP they tended to be evasive or they tended to be coy. So I would like to know whether there is an invisible hand to shut up these civil servants? Is the invisible hand yours or the Chinese Government's or any other anonymous people?