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Letters

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification
It has now been over 25 years since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule. However, many of the colonial-era policies and systems have not really changed. Today, we have a chief executive with three direct reports: the secretary for justice, the chief secretary for administration (overseeing nine bureaus) and the financial secretary (overseeing six bureaus). The total civil service headcount is around 173,000 – approaching 5 per cent of our labour force.
Freezing civil servants’ pay is at best a short-term remedy. We need to set up a task force to conduct an in-depth efficiency analysis to streamline the overall government structure and look for longer-term savings. Freezing take-home pay could affect the overall morale of the civil service which in turn would impact the services it provides.
Let’s take a look at an area with overlapping responsibilities where streamlining would yield savings. There are three entities promoting our city abroad: Economic and Trade Offices, InvestHK and the Trade Development Council (TDC) – all have offices around the world. There are 14 Economic and Trade Offices globally, InvestHK has staff in 34 cities and TDC has 51 offices around the world.
TDC was established in 1966 to help manufacturers and exporters expand their network. As China became the manufacturing centre, Hong Kong’s role as a middleman has diminished. TDC today is basically an operator of exhibitions, which should be part of the private sector.
I have over the years personally attended functions organised by the representatives of various Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices. They seem to me to be fundamentally public relations exercises which InvestHK can also handle.
Why do we need such duplication? Savings would not be limited to headcount because we own or rent all these office premises – sometimes more than one in different locations in the same city. When I was a Legislative Council member in the 1990s, I suggested we have a Hong Kong House in each city, with tourism advisory work at the street level and investment advisory on the upper floors.
Also, why do we need a permanent secretary as well as an undersecretary reporting directly to the head of the bureau, as in the case of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau?
A review of the job descriptions of senior officials is long overdue.
Paul M.F. Cheng, Mid-Levels
Northern Metropolis might be too ambitious
When introducing his budget on February 26, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said that the development of the Northern Metropolis, a project covering one-third the land area of Hong Kong, was an investment in the city’s future.
This is a bold and expensive project that prompts serious questions. The first concerns cost. The estimated cost of the project is HK$224 billion (US$28.8 billion), with bonds to be issued to fund infrastructure projects under the initiative. It has become common for the final cost of major construction and engineering projects in Hong Kong to be much higher than the original estimate.
The Northern Metropolis is a bold initiative given the current fragile state of Hong Kong’s finances. Without disrespecting our government, one has to note that it has no prior experience of managing projects of this scale.
There is also a question about the need or opportunity the project satisfies. What businesses will move and flourish there? If the new development draws significant investment away from Hong Kong’s present industries and services there will be less return on the capital invested in the Northern Metropolis.
Even if there is, as one hopes, significant investment in the services and industries of the completed Northern Metropolis project, many of the people who will work there may opt to live in Guangdong province and commute to Hong Kong, given the significant cost-of-living disparity between the two.
It would be welcomed if our government could make greater efforts to explain the hows and whys of this huge project to the public.
David Hall, Mid-Levels


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Opinion

Readers discuss how the civil service could be streamlined, and the Northern Metropolis plan


Readers discuss how the civil service could be streamlined, and the Northern Metropolis plan.


Hong Kong

Hong Kong economy

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Readers discuss how the civil service could be streamlined, and the Northern Metropolis plan

Readers discuss how the civil service could be streamlined, and the Northern Metropolis plan