- 1 -
More Govt departments join scheme to promote use of Chinese
Seven more government departments, which have extensive contacts with the public, have joined a pilot scheme to promote the wider use of Chinese in their daily work.
They are the Urban Services Department, Regional Services Department, Education Department, Social Welfare Department, Labour Department, Immigration Department and Fire Services Department. The Commissioner for Official Languages, Miss Yvonne Choi, said today (Saturday) that this would bring to nine the total number of departments joining the pilot scheme.
The scheme is currently being implemented in the Home Affairs Department and Housing Department.
"The implementation of the pilot scheme is one of the measures recommended last September by the Working Group on the Use of Chinese in the Civil Service," Miss Choi said.
"The participating departments are keenly supportive of Government's policy drive to promote the wider use of Chinese and have already in place a Working Group or a formal mechanism to proactively identify areas for using more Chinese. "Their participation in the scheme will offer a most valuable field from which the rest of the civil service can obtain practical experience in the use of Chinese."
Miss Choi added that in order to assist civil servants in preparing documents in Chinese, the Official Languages Agency has produced the first batch of reference materials and guidelines.
"This first batch focuses on general principles on official Chinese writing, official correspondence and recommended dictionaries and reference materials.
"Work has also begun on other categories of official documents and specific topics of relevance to official Chinese writing.
"These guidelines and reference materials will be issued initially as a 'trial edition'. Views and suggestions are welcome, so that the revised editions will satisfy even better the needs of the civil service," she said.
End