The Symposium on Leadership Development for the Civil Service was held at the City Hall of Hong Kong Wednesday, marking another notable move of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government in enhancing the competence of its 180,000-strong civil servant team.
About 1,000 directorate officers participated in the symposium, officiated by HKSAR Chief Executive Tung Cheehwa.
Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang, Head of the Central Policy Unit Professor Lau Siukai and other guest speakers shared with the audience different perspectives on how directorate officers could better lead and serve the people of Hong Kong.
The audience also exchanged views with Financial Secretary Antony Leung, Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung and a number of Directors of Bureau who joined the guest speakers in a panel discussion open to the floor.
A Directorate Leadership Guide, a personalized training and development guide for directorate officers, and its related website "Leaders' Corner" were formally launched at the symposium.
Tung called on the civil service to work in close partnership with him and the Principal Officials in managing the monumental change brought about by the globalization of the economy and the rapid development of the economy on the Chinese mainland.
"Our civil service underpins the governance of Hong Kong. Together we shall foster an open, enlightened and progressive government dedicated to pursuing the overall interests of Hong Kong," he said.
Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph W P Wong said "the government places great emphasis on training and development for civil servants and organizes seminars and training programs on different subjects regularly. This symposium is organized as one of these learning events."
Last week, the government held a civil service management forum entitled "A world-class government for Asia's world city" at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.
About 14,000 middle and senior civil servants took part in eight sessions between August 26 and 29.
A survey on the participants of last week's forum showed that 80 percent of the participants thought the forum was conducive to improving their work and 75 percent of them thought the forum should enroll more civil servants to help them understand the mutual challenges they are facing.
(People's Daily Septembert 5, 2002)
