ENG-2001 — Page 54

CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION

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In 2001, the office handled 632 trade, economic and general enquiries and requests for assistance.

The Beijing Office regularly organises activities to promote Hong Kong with a view to enhancing the Mainland people's understanding of Hong Kong's systems and latest developments, strengthening trade and economic links, as well as facilitating exchanges between Hong Kong and the Mainland. In 2001, the Beijing Office planned and assisted in the implementation of the HKSAR Delegation's visit to the Western Region. It also organised promotional activities in Chongqing and Ningxia. In addition, the Beijing Office handles immigration matters. It processes applications for entry to Hong Kong and conducts negotiations on visa-free access with foreign diplomatic missions in Beijing. The office also provides practical assistance to Hong Kong residents in distress in the Mainland, and handles on request cases involving the detention of Hong Kong residents in the Mainland. During the year, the office handled 224 cases involving the provision of practical assistance to Hong Kong residents.

Advisory and Statutory Bodies

The network of advisory and statutory bodies is a distinctive feature of the system of government. It seeks to obtain, through consultation with interested groups and individuals in the community, the best possible advice on which to base decisions or to perform statutory functions.

Advisory bodies give advice to the Government through a policy secretary or a head of department. Their areas of activities are wide-ranging. Some of the advisory bodies, such as the Telecommunications Standards Advisory Committee, deal with the interests of a particular industry. Others advise on a particular area of government policy interest, such as the Transport Advisory Committee. Some advisory bodies, such as the Area Committees, deal essentially with district affairs. Statutory bodies perform their functions according to the relevant legislation. Some of them, such as the Hospital Authority, perform executive functions.

Government officials and members of the public serve on these bodies. About 5 900 members of the public have been appointed to serve on about 600 bodies, and some serve on more than one. These people are appointed in view of their specialist knowledge or expertise, their record or interest in contributing to community service, and the specific needs of the concerned bodies.

The Government regularly keeps in view the composition and operation of the advisory and statutory bodies to ensure that they meet the needs of the community. A reasonable turnover of membership is generally maintained to ensure the inflow of new ideas. At the same time, these bodies adopt a number of transparency measures, including issuing press releases, holding press briefings and opening up meetings, so as to promote the public's understanding of their work. Membership lists of all these bodies are also uploaded onto the Internet to facilitate public inspection of the relevant information.

Structure of the Administration

The HKSAR Government is organised into bureaux and departments. The bureaux, each headed by a policy secretary, collectively form the Government Secretariat. In 2001, there were 16 policy bureaux of which two were resource bureaux concerned