Speech by SCS at the Career Exhibition 2001, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Following is the speech by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Joseph W P Wong, at the opening of Career Exhibition 2001, Hong Kong Polytechnic University today (November 29) :

Professor Poon, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to be here this morning to officiate at the opening of Career Exhibition 2001 of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

As the Chief Executive has stressed consistently, when it comes to education, the Government will spare no effort in the training of young people and the upgrading of our workforce.  This is crucial in enhancing Hong Kong's competitiveness in a knowledge-based economy in the new millennium.  Being the largest local tertiary institution in terms of student headcount, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University has been offering a wide range of professionally-oriented programmes in full-time or part-time mode to help prepare students for their future careers.

As the largest employer in Hong Kong, the HKSAR Government is also a major stakeholder in the quality of our tertiary graduates.  Apart from specialist knowledge and professional skills required for particular jobs, we also place strong emphasis on the language standards of all our recruits.  This latter requirement is imposed to support Hong Kong's position as a cosmopolitan city and our 'people-oriented' public service which communicates, day in and day out, with members of the local and international community from all walks of life.  It is hence our policy to develop a civil service which is biliterate and trilingual.  Our civil servants need to write properly in both Chinese and English, and communicate effectively in Cantonese, our mother tongue, Putonghua, our national tongue, and English, the most commonly used international language.

It is not easy to join the civil service.  In fact, competition has further increased during the recent economic downturn.  In our latest recruitment of five civil service management grades, namely the Administrative Officer, Executive Officer, Trade Officer, Labour Officer and Management Services Officer grades, we have attracted some 17 000 applications.  For those of you who took part in the Common Recruitment Examination held last Saturday (24 November), you should have gone through the papers on Use of Chinese and Use of English.  Those who have passed the Part I examination will be notified in early January to attend our Part II examination to be held on 12 January 2002.  In that examination, we will require candidates to demonstrate their language abilities in a practical problem-solving situation.  While I cannot disclose the examination questions to you, I urge all candidates to visit the newly revamped Civil Service Bureau Website to get a taste of the sample questions.

For students who have not applied for the vacancies in these five management grades, they may still wish to visit our website which contains all current job openings in the Government and their entry requirements.  The website also contains a host of information about the civil service management system for anyone interested in pursuing a career to serve the community.

Having worked in the private sector for four years before I joined the civil service 28 years ago, I can tell you in all honesty that working in the Government does offer a unique, challenging and satisfying career, for which there is no equivalence in the private sector.  You will not be very rich as a civil servant and you will be asked to reduce your salary from time to time.  But a sense of pride and achievement will accompany you for the rest of your life if you believe you have really done a great service to the public.  Find out more about the civil service from this exhibition.  Our colleagues will be pleased to answer your queries.

Another advice for those interested to join the civil service : we look for people who are committed to serving the public with dedication and loyalty, people who are prepared to work overtime without pay, and if necessary, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.  We also expect the highest degree of integrity and probity.

Lastly, I wish the Career Exhibition 2001 of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University every success.  I also wish all of the job-seekers here and elsewhere a promising career within or outside the Government.  Thank you.

Thursday, November 29, 2001