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Hong Kong budget 2025-26
OpinionLetters

Letters | Hong Kong needs a complete review of government structure and efficiency

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

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A man walks past the government headquarters in Admiralty on February 22. Edmond So
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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.

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