Li Jiachao's new team is led by the three-headed carriage - the Department of Justice, the Financial Secretary and the Secretary for Administration. The Secretary for Administration assists the Chief Executive in handling the operation of the entire government system, the Financial Secretary is responsible for economic development and land and housing planning, and the Department of Justice handles all policies related to the rule of law. and personnel training issues.
The role of the Chief Secretary for Administration is particularly important.
The current government system in Hong Kong operates a folded house, and the division of labor and coordination among departments is very low. Therefore, the Chief Secretary for Administration has four major tasks.
The first task is to rectify the current culture of incoordination and shirk between government departments, which is a core issue.
If the government does not coordinate and do not cooperate in the administration, everything will become empty talk and slogans.
The Chief Secretary for Administration must lead by example and bring about a new civil service culture.
The second is to reform the work ecology and system of civil servants and introduce more specific assessment indicators.
Hong Kong's civil service system lacks advanced and professionalism because it is very closed. Promotion is not conducted through an objective assessment, such as examinations and studies. Usually, the boss decides whether to promote or not, forming a culture that caters to the boss's taste.
The dangerous part of this culture is that officials only try to figure out the boss's ideas and don't pay attention to the establishment of their own capabilities.
In contrast, the Singapore civil service focuses on developing the competencies of civil servants.
The newly established civil service college is aimed at middle and low-level civil servants, but middle and high-level civil servants need a more systematic training.
Cooperation with Tsinghua University is a start.
But why doesn't Hong Kong cooperate with Singapore and send staff to study at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore?
Why not cooperate with the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University?
The Chief Secretary for Administration must lead by example and bring about a new civil service culture.
(Information Services Department)
The third core task of the Secretary for Home Affairs is community planning.
Community planning and regional administration have never been dealt with at all, and they have become regional "pie-sharing", lacking in-depth and systematic community governance capabilities.
The main purpose of community administration is to enable citizens to obtain better community supporting services.
So how to update the current district administration?
Through the Home Affairs and Youth Affairs Bureau, of course, it is very important, but the Secretary for Home Affairs should have a broader perspective. He should think about how to integrate regional administration with the central government system, how to conceive the overall planning of Hong Kong, and how to conceive solutions to regional administrative problems?
The community policies proposed in Li Jiachao's political platform are all short-term measures.
In the long run, it is necessary to learn from the regional administrative systems of the mainland and other cities, and to have the ability to update and innovate more independently in the fields of transportation, housing, education, and medical care, instead of using a unified central model for everything.
The problem dealt with by the central model is that there are only a lot of program slogans, but they don't stick to the ground.
In fact, the Home Affairs Department was originally dealing with district administration, but it was very passive, officials lacked initiative and enthusiasm, and they were not taken seriously for a long time.
Reforming the Home Affairs Department is precisely one of the tasks that the Secretary for Home Affairs needs to direct himself.
Many other government departments are involved, such as the Transport Department, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the Drainage Services Department, the Electrical and Mechanical Department, and various community-related infrastructure and community service packages, all of which need to be coordinated by the Secretary for Home Affairs.
But generally speaking, the Secretary for Home Affairs has to make a plan so that Hong Kong's regional administration has a blueprint for development.
The short-term measures proposed by Li Jiachao are correct, but how to activate the regional administrative system?
Only by activating the regional administrative system can many economic, cultural and social resources be created. For example, the 18 districts can give full play to their different regional characteristics, thereby promoting the development of tourism culture.
The fourth task is of course the connection between education and culture.
In the past, Hong Kong's educational and cultural system only focused on connecting with the West, and its ability to connect with China and Asia was very low.
The Secretary for Home Affairs has the responsibility to plan how to promote the cooperation between the new Cultural, Sports and Tourism Bureau and the Education Bureau to promote quality and far-reaching development in cultural education.
The most important thing is to get rid of the influence of Western international rankings, in order to create a truly effective talent training mechanism.
For a long time, Hong Kong has only spent money on activities for education, culture and art, but not on cultivating Hong Kong people.
That's exactly one reason why unrest erupted in 2019.
People don't know the cultural value of Hong Kong, so there is a lot of grievances. In addition, in the past, they have been living in the education of Western international rankings, and they have lost Chinese cultural identity and the ability to culturally independent.
These issues need to be dealt with by the Secretary for Home Affairs.
Director-General Chen Guoji has an in-depth understanding of the operation of the government, as well as the working culture of the government.
(China News Agency)
The Chief Secretary for Administration manages both the big and the small. The reason why the Secretary-designate, Chan Kwok-kee, is suitable is that he started from the disciplined service and has a deep understanding of government operations, as well as the basics of government work culture, and has experience in handling problems.
But knowing doesn't mean doing it well.
Knowing how to do it well is exactly the test for Mr. Chen Guoji, and the above four tasks are what Mr. Chen Guoji can and should do.
Hu Enwei
is a member of the National Hong Kong and Macao Research Association, a member of the Jiangsu Provincial Political Consultative Conference, and Zuni.
Icosahedron United Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer
(The article is purely the author's opinion and does not represent the position of Hong Kong 01.)