The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Is the reorganization of the government a matter of political harmony?

2022-01-13T09:16:42.290Z


At the first meeting of the new Legislative Council this Wednesday (January 12), the Chief Executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, announced the government's restructuring plan, including the establishment of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, and the spin-off of the Transport and Housing Bureau.


At the first meeting of the new Legislative Council this Wednesday (January 12), the Chief Executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, announced the government restructuring plan, including the establishment of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, the splitting of the Transport and Housing Bureau into the Transport and Logistics Bureau and The Housing Bureau, etc., will also reorganize other policy bureaus and rationalize their division of functions.

After the proposal is approved by the Legislative Council, the current SAR government's "three divisions and thirteen bureaus" will be expanded to "three divisions and fifteen bureaus".


The government's submission to the Legislative Council emphasized that "the new positions involved should be mainly limited to the additional staff of the Secretary and his office required by the proposed new policy bureau, so as to minimize the financial impact", and it is expected that the establishment of the two new Secretary's offices will be mainly Involving bureau chiefs, deputy bureau chiefs, political assistants, administrative assistants and support staff such as press secretaries, private secretaries and clerical staff, the annual expenditure is estimated to be about $32 million with reference to the budget levels of the existing policy bureaus.

Carrie Lam attends the Legislative Council Q&A session.

(Photo by Lu Yiming)

Reorganization is important but the helmsman is equally important

In fact, since the handover, the Hong Kong government organization has changed more than once.

The first Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa, changed the Culture, Recreation and Broadcasting Bureau into the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau, and split the Planning, Environment and Lands Bureau into the Environment and Food Bureau and the Planning and Lands Bureau. When he and Donald Tsang were re-elected, the number of policy bureaus became 11 respectively. The former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying added the Innovation and Technology Bureau, thus becoming the current "three divisions and 13 bureaus" structure.

Despite repeated and repeated structural reorganizations, the quality of governance of the SAR government does not seem to have truly improved. On the contrary, problems such as social disintegration, housing shortage, monotony of industries and disparity between the rich and the poor are becoming more and more serious.

Besides, if it is really possible to solve the problem by splitting up specialized bureaus to take charge of their affairs, shouldn't the Innovation and Technology Bureau, which has been established for more than six years, have already turned Hong Kong into an innovation and technology highland?

Unfortunately, this is clearly not the case.

After all, the administrative structure is important, but who implements the policy is more important.

We are happy to see the reorganization of the policy bureau to show the government's emphasis on relevant policies, but we can only take a wait-and-see attitude as to how the governance team of the new government will be.

Hong Kong government should recruit policy experts

At the same time, there is another noteworthy detail in this reorganization plan, that is, the Policy Innovation and Coordination Office, formerly known as the Central Policy Group, did not appear in the new organizational chart. be considered by the Chief Executive."

In the past, when the Central Policy Group was changed to the Innovation Office, there were opinions that it was a space for policy research talents to be placed in the compressed system.

If the plan is to completely eliminate the Innovation Office, it seems to indicate that this trend is further extended.

In 2017, the Chief Executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, announced the reorganization of the Central Policy Unit into the Innovation Office in her first policy address in office.

(file picture)

When asked by a member about the search for political talents to join the Hong Kong government, Carrie Lam did not answer directly, but shifted her focus to the Legislative Council. She said, "Political talents and politicians include not only SAR officials, but also members of the Legislative Council. However, the new Legislative Council produced after the improvement of the electoral system happens to have introduced a lot of think tank talents specializing in policy research, so it stands to reason that the Hong Kong government should follow the same direction when looking for talents in the future.

In the past, Leung Chun-ying also proposed the reorganization plan of "Five Divisions and Fourteen Divisions", which was criticized by various parties as it would exacerbate the problem of stacking beds and lead to unnecessary financial expenses. It was even questioned that it was creating more jobs for political compensation. Finally stillborn.

Considering that the discussions in those years were dominated by politics, today you may not necessarily have to make a quick judgment on the "three divisions and fifteen bureaus" plan, but we should still remind the Hong Kong government to pay attention to the various concerns raised by predecessors, and to look for suitable talents. Work harder.

In the end, thinking without governance consciousness What kind of political talents does Hong Kong's "hot kitchen" need?

The northern metro area can't be just a castle in the sky

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2022-01-13

You may like

Life/Entertain 2024-03-08T16:17:42.841Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.