Dear Colleagues,

Prize Presentation Night

The 2004 Customer Service Prize Presentation Night was held last evening, attended by more than 500 civil service colleagues from various departments and broadcast on television to a much wider audience.  I hope you have either attended or watched the programme.

During the programme, two well-known dignitaries recognised the excellent performance of the civil service.  Mr Philip Chen, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Cathay Pacific Airways said, "the Hong Kong civil service is on par with international standard, in terms of quality, efficiency and customer service.  Civil Servants are an asset of Hong Kong".  Mr David Eldon, Chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation  Limited complimented our civil servants for playing a vital role "from building our world-class infrastructure to maintaining our reputation as an orderly city to enhancing our standing as an international financial centre".  Mr Eldon also observed that "sometimes we take for granted good customer service from our civil servants.  Such service is like oxygen, you don't necessarily notice it unless you're not getting any".  I am sure you will take comfort and encouragement from their remarks.

The highlights of the Prize Presentation Night and the series of Review of Quality Public Services will be uploaded to CSB's website.  We shall also produce VCDs on the programmes for distribution to departments and colleagues.  Separately, we are working on a publication which will present vivid examples of how our departments and civil servants have achieved worldwide standard in various aspects of their work.

Keep up the good work！

Yours sincerely,

(Joseph W P Wong)
Secretary for the Civil Service