TNAG-0735-FCO40-939-Policy-objective-for-the-developing-of-Hong-Kong-in-the-1980-1978 — Page 59

Speech by the Hon. Martin Rowlands

Secretary for the Civil Service

in Legislative Council on 16th November 1978

Sir,

I cannot think of a better starting point than

Dr Rayson Huang's plea that we should do more to inculcate

in civil servants a true sense of service to the

community. We have, I think, made considerable strides

in this direction during the past decade, and the great

majority of civil servants do undoubtedly recognise where

their responsibility lies. But there are regrettably some

amongst us who need reminding of this point, and we shall

check that we really are getting the message across during

induction training, and, later on, during the in-service

training which more and more officers are now attending.

2.

I thought that Dr Huang's remarks on the need

for the civil service to achieve greater rapport with the

community, with corresponding changes in administrative

style, were most apposite, and we shall consider introducing

this theme into some of our seminars for more senior officers.

3.

Several members expressed keen interest in the

outcome of the current review of policies for the housing

of civil servants. Work on the review itself is now

substantially complete. However, the purpose of the review

was to form a basis for considering improved forms of

assistance to civil servants. This, I regret to say, has

proved a more difficult task than we had expected, not

least because of the upward trend in property costs, and

more/....