The characteristic of the Hong Kong government's post-reunification policy is to promote thousands of "projects", such as the large-scale development of Lantau Tomorrow and the Northeast New Territories.
Every government department has a variety of programs, and recently launched the "Crackdown on Hygiene Black Spots Program".
Planning is a one-off, but what Hong Kong needs most right now is planning.
The plan to combat sanitation blackspots led by Deputy Director Zhuo Yongxing is a very good start, but we will ask: Isn't the FEHD responsible for the issue of city appearance and sanitation?
Is there not enough FEHD staff?
The FEHD is the second largest department in the government. With such a huge department, why are there still so many hygiene black spots?
Why does the government spend 1.8 billion to deal with hawkers every year, but fail to deal with the problem of hygiene black spots?
To what extent are the plans of the Hong Kong government departments?
If you look online, you will know that there are Guangdong-Hong Kong Technology Co-operation Funding Scheme, SME Loan Guarantee Scheme, Technology Entrepreneur Partnership Scheme, Funding Scheme to Encourage Early Adoption of 5G Technology, Re-industrialization and Technology Training Scheme, to name a few.
There are many plans, but in developing industries in Hong Kong, it is impossible to just launch a large number of subsidy schemes. What is needed is planning.
How to plan is the core.
What is planning?
This is to learn from the mainland.
The country has a "14th Five-Year Plan" with clear goals.
For another example, to go to space and set up a space station, there must be a plan and a step-by-step process, and there will be a review mechanism for whether the implementation is successful or not.
After Deputy Director Zhuo Yongxing is in charge of completing the plan to combat hygiene blackspots, the most important thing is how to plan so that Hong Kong will not have hygiene blackspots for a long time.
Deputy Director Zhuo has to be careful to avoid "parallel universes", where the hygiene black spots disappear when he is out on patrol and reappear when he returns to the government headquarters.
He has to make the citizens feel that the problem is really solved.
There are several levels of planning.
At present, the problem of health black spots in Hong Kong is that there is no sound regional administrative system. If there is a district chief who is held accountable for the whole district's health, transportation and people's livelihood, he will actively perform his duties.
At present, each of the 18 districts of the Home Affairs Department has a person in charge, but does the person in charge have enough power to oversee the departments of the Leisure and Cultural Affairs Department and the Department of Transport in the district?
Of course not.
Because the Leisure and Cultural Services Department is an independent kingdom, the Transport Department is another independent kingdom, and the Police Force is another system, so the Deputy Secretary is needed.
The Buildings Department is even more bizarre, often turning small things into big ones and not doing what should be done.
The problem of signboards is created by the Buildings Department, because if they promote the legalization of the Signboard Ordinance and let professionals who have been living in peace all along implement the signboard licensing system, the problem of abandoned signboards will not arise.
The last problem is the reconstruction of old districts.
Now the URA is basically not rebuilding, it is just demolishing buildings, and it is not dealing with sanitation issues in old districts.
The government has empowered the URA to deal with the problems of old districts. Although the URA has some subsidy for building maintenance, it has failed to reorganize and organize the community.
Therefore, after completing the plan to combat health blackspots, Deputy Director Zhuo must launch a set of regional administrative plans.
If Director Mai Meijuan is in charge of regional administration, next year she should launch a regional administrative planning system that can be implemented step by step. In this system, regional health must be the focus.
If there are 18 district chiefs who patrol the districts every day, the number of times that Deputy Director Zhuo can only patrol one district per day is much higher.
So, how to set up the eighteenth district mayor?
The simplest logic is through political appointments, or the local Legislative Council members also serve as district governors to really handle regional affairs.
Looking at the news now, abandoned bicycles and motorcycles have become a problem again.
The Transport Department came out to say that it was a legal issue, but it was not just a legal issue, but related to the way the Transport Department did things.
Why is a problem that should have been dealt with 20 years ago, only to be dealt with today because Deputy Director Zhuo was dispatched?
We often exaggerate the capabilities of Hong Kong civil servants. Of course, Hong Kong civil servants are not the worst, but the salaries of Hong Kong civil servants are so high, is the effect "valued"?
We can say that most civil servants are good, but we can also say that civil servants themselves have many problems.
The Legislative Council has raised the issue of civil service reform. Should the Secretary for the Civil Service, Ms Yeung Ho Pei-yin, come up with some substantive reform measures, not just for the problems that occurred in 2019?
What happened in 2019 is a symptom. If you want to cure this disease, you must have a real prescription, instead of saying that I have a stomachache. Applying a little white flower oil can solve this problem.
The government civil service system is not a problem that can be solved with white flower oil, but a systemic problem, which involves the word "planning".
How to plan the future development of civil servants?
How to stay on schedule?
The government needs to use the method of playing Go to deal with Hong Kong issues systematically, not just to hold an event, but to ask the media to do news.
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
