World-class civil service academy a must for HK

Tony Kwok welcomes Chief Executive Carrie Lam's proposal to establish training college along the lines of Singapore's

I have previously written a number of articles comparing Hong Kong with Singapore. Looking back 30 years, Hong Kong was then the envy of Singapore. Now Singapore has surpassed Hong Kong on a number of key economic indexes - including container ports, aviation, innovative technology, high-tech manufacturing - and its GDP per capita well exceeds that of Hong Kong - $51,855 against Hong Kong's $36,173.

It therefore makes good sense for Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to visit Singapore in her first official foreign trip in the role. One idea she has taken back to Hong Kong is her pledge to set up a civil service training academy, similar to Singapore's Civil Service College.

As expected, her suggestion was immediately met with negative feedback from opposition quarters. This included a retired senior civil servant who has been a harsh critic of government ever since he was not reappointed as a policy secretary. He said the new academy could be a means to conduct national education for civil servants!

At present Hong Kong's civil service training is conducted by the Civil Service Training and Development Institute (CSTDI). It is just one of the 14 divisions in the Civil Service Bureau, headed by a principal assistant secretary of junior directorate rank who shoulders heavy responsibility to train 170,000 civil servants. It does not have its own building and is located in the North Point Government Offices. In short it has limited resources and status. Hence, from what I understand, much of the training - such as media training, crisis management and senior management training - is contracted to outside consultants.

Having said that, some of the courses provided by CSTDI are indeed about national studies and the Basic Law. The institute also organizes a staff exchange program with major Chinese mainland cities. Hence the criticism that the proposed civil service training academy is to pursue national education only reflects the critics' incomprehensible ignorance and anti-mainland mentality.

The Hong Kong civil service enjoys a well-deserved reputation for efficiency and incorruptibility. Unfortunately, since the handover of sovereignty many senior officers have found themselves embroiled in controversies resulting from needless politicization of issues which previously lent themselves to cool-headed and rational debates. They are now often forced to navigate a treacherous political path to have legislation approved and public projects endorsed - thanks to the irrational obstructionism of some political factions under the pretext of democracy. Thus, as the chief executive said, there is a pressing need for the civil servants to think outside the box, embrace new technology, engage public participation and enhance their leadership skills.

It is not difficult for us to relate to the creation of the Civil Service College in Singapore. In its annual report in 2016-17, the college said: "Since 2013, the college has provided training support to the Singapore Public Service in embarking on a transformation journey with the aim of building 'One Trusted Public Service with Citizens at the Centre'. The focus is to improve the delivery of services to citizens and to build trust, partner and build stronger connections with our citizens." Isn't this exactly what Hong Kong needs at present!

The Singapore Civil Service College was established in October 2001 as a statutory body. It comprises five institutes dealing with governance and policy; leadership and organization development; public administration and management; public sector leadership and an international college. It appears to have many advantages over our CSTDI. Clearly it enjoys a higher status with its Board of Directors comprising elite representatives from both the government and private sector. It fields a long list of visiting fellows from the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. It thus has top-notch in-house expertise in various disciplines and seldom needs to contract out training. Quite the reverse, the college offers training to the business sector to enhance professionalism, build partnership and at the same time as a source of income. Its international college offers courses for overseas civil servants to learn from the public service's best practice in Singapore and promote international cooperation. I am particularly impressed with its research department which engages experts to research past cases and write case studies to facilitate practical training. Hong Kong can certainly benefit from adopting this practice in view of the crises that caused near-paralysis in our community in recent years.

The British Civil Service College is also worthy of our emulation. Founded in 2012, it offers tailor-made courses such as legal awareness on judicial reviews; emergency response and crisis handling; answering questions in parliament; influencing public opinion; managing ministerial and parliamentary select committee expectations; and using the latest digital and data management tools. These fields can benefit Hong Kong civil servants.

In view of the limitless growth potential on offer to Hong Kong with the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development, the proposed academy in Hong Kong could not have come at a more opportune time, as it can also be tasked to help develop the expertise Hong Kong people would need to maximize our involvement. The new academy can also set up an international college to help train civil servants from Belt and Road countries and to build up good partnerships with these countries.

(HK Edition 08/17/2017 page8)