TNAG-2989-FCO40-3575-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-talks-betwee-1992 — Page 129

117. I would like to record my gratitude to the joint Members who are today stepping down from the Executive Council. I greatly admire the way in which so many of them attempted to accept new and important party political obligations while maintaining their commitment to the confidentiality and collective responsibility which are an essential part of an Executive Councillor's responsibilities. Hong Kong is in their debt for the sincerity and goodwill they showed in shouldering an increasingly difficult political burden over the last year.

The New ExCo

118. I intend the new Executive Council to be a non-party political body to which I can look for sound, impartial advice on the wide range of issues that come before the Administration. I am, therefore, appointing to ExCo independent members of the community, distinguished in their own walks of life, who can give me advice without the conflicting loyalties of active day-to-day political involvement. There will also be a number of senior government officials on the Council. I will be announcing the members of the new Council later today. I also intend that ExCo should spend more time on strategic issues, and less on the minutiae of government, than has recently been the case. I shall be asking its non-official Members from time to time to develop policies with the Administration in those fields where they have particular expertise. Those will be the policies which it will then be the Administration's task to explain to this Council, and to persuade this Council to adopt and develop. What accountability means in practice is creative dialogue between the Administration and you-and that is the area to which I next turn.

LegCo's President

119. Separating the non-government membership of the two Councils implies that LegCo must be left free to run its own affairs and, in the process, to develop further its relationship with the Government. That is the position now laid down in the Royal Instructions, and will be the position, set out in Article 75 of the Basic Law, in the future. As an important move in that direction, I wish to hand over as soon as possible the responsibilities of presiding over this Council to a President elected by you from among your own Members, as soon as the necessary formalities can be completed.

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