- 10 -
Mr Man Sai-cheong (through interpreter): A question on Civil Service transition please. Now in certain countries languages may stir emotions in people. Now 800 more days, or fewer than 800 more days, we will see the transition of sovereignty. So Mr Governor, with regard to the Civil Service, in departments for example have you looked at the use of Chinese in this Government's departments and also the use of Chinese between Civil Servants of different departments and the use of Chinese between Civil Servants and the public in general? Do you have a timetable so that when we have the SAR both languages will equally be used in the Civil Service? Have you started the study on language use yet? If yes, what is your timetable? So Mr Governor, maybe you yourself have to initiate the study or can you just refer the matter to the Civil Service Branch?
Governor: Well, it is of course a subject which we've been studying, but more important we've been acting on it. I think I'm right in recalling that there will be about 14,000 Civil Servants who will be doing, over the next year or so, our Putonghua training and about half that number who will be doing the training in the written language. So, we are beefing up very substantially our language training, just as we're also trying to increase the language training for expatriate administrative officers, for example improving their working knowledge of Cantonese. They're very important issues. I know the Honourable Member feels very concerned about this particular subject and I can assure him that the Secretary for the Civil Service and all of us give the matter a good deal of thought and are doing all that we can to increase the language skills of the Civil Service. As I said earlier, what we are looking for and it's difficult but not unique if you look around the world, is a Civil Service which can manage in three oral languages and can manage in two written languages and that's quite a challenge.
Mr Man Sai-cheong (through interpreter): Let me follow-up briefly. What are your targets in the language front? Is it to ensure that both Chinese and English can be used in the Civil Service, that is in the Government Departments, or would it be the case that you are trying to move from one language to the other, especially when we talk about documents? That is, for Government Departments, will it go from the language of English to Chinese? Have you made a decision on that yet?
Governor: I think inevitably Chinese languages will be used far more in Government as we get closer to '97 and beyond '97. I think that is inevitable and right but I think it would be a mistake if in making that progress English language skills suffered a great deal because Hong Kong is an international centre of distinction and one of the ways that is reflected is in our ability to cope in other languages, particularly English. But we intend to do all that we can before 1997 to ensure that the SAR Government has the Civil Service that can manage in the two languages written and in the three languages spoken. I would imagine that my successor and his or her senior colleagues would find themselves working for most of the time in Chinese.
Mr James Tien: Thank you Mr President. Well Governor, I have a relatively easy one for you regarding.