Publicity role allowed junior director the chance to shine

Edward Yau Tang-wah, the most junior of the civil servants set to quit their jobs and become ministers, was only picked out as a rising star after he took over the job of director of information services 14 months ago.

Until then he had been deputy secretary for education and manpower and prior to that, director of Hong Kong's economic and trade office in Washington.

Like the two other civil servants set to become ministers, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Eva Cheng Yu-wah, Mr Yau is in his late forties. However, he ranks lower than them in the civil service pecking order, being of directorate grade 4 whereas their posts are directorate grade 8.

A senior official said Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen came to recognise Mr Yau's ability after he was picked to head the government's publicity machinery. Mr Yau is responsible for holding the so-called 'morning prayers', a daily meeting between Mr Tsang and his top aides, including ministers, to discuss and draw up strategies for tackling matters of public concern.

He has taken the initiative to shape strategy in dealing with controversial issues such as the consultation over the goods and services tax, and acted as a co-ordinator on interdepartmental issues.

An official familiar with the situation said that, although no one official could have changed the results that flowed from suspending the consultation on the tax, 'the consultation exercise has become evidently smoother after Mr Yau got involved in fine-tuning the strategy'.

A veteran politician, who sat on the Employee Retraining Board and on a panel establishing a new framework for recognising academic and vocational qualifications when Mr Yau worked in the Education and Manpower Bureau, said he was always willing to listen to others.