China's State Council has appointed York Chow Yat Ngok as secretary of the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

Chow replaces Yeoh Eng-Kiong, who resigned the post after being criticized in August for mishandling the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis.

The State Council made the appointment on Friday in accordance with the Basic Law of the HKSAR and following Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's nomination of Chow, said a press release from the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council.

Tung said that Chow is a medical specialist with extensive experience in policymaking, management and social welfare programs. He is fully confident, he said, that Chow can meet the challenges of the position.

Tung thanked outgoing secretary Yeoh Eng-kiong for his dedicated public service.

Chow said that the chief executive approached him in mid-September about taking the job, and he spent two days considering his suitability before accepting the offer.

He said he will spend his initial weeks in the post taking in the bureau's major issues, in particular listening to the public and their advocates. Top priorities are support and services for the elderly, the disabled, the chronically ill and families disadvantaged by poverty, as well as the early detection and control of infectious disease.

Chow's predecessor came under sharp criticism for Hong Kong's response to SARS, which devastated Hong Kong when it infected 1,755 people and killed 299. Critics charged that a slow and sloppy response aggravated the epidemic.

Health officials were accused of inadequate planning for such an outbreak, paying insufficient attention when SARS emerged and poor communication, among other problems.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn October 9, 2004)