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SENIOR civil servants should be required to be proficient in Chinese, Secretary for Civil Service Michael Sze Cho-cheung will be told today.

 Legislators from the two major parties will make the request when Mr Sze introduces to legislators a proposal to open about 600 positions held by senior contract officers - many of them expatriates - for competition.

  The proposal, announced last week, will be adopted as a long-term solution to the bitter row over transfer of overseas officers to local terms.

  But Democratic Party spokesman on the civil service, Cheung Man-kwong, said he would not agree to the plan unless the Chinese requirement was written in.

  He said he would require the Government to specify the language requirement by stating which jobs did not need knowledge of Chinese.

 The Liberal Party chairman, Allen Lee Peng-fei, said: 'The requirement of Chinese proficiency must be written down and it should specify whether it is of Form Five standard. It is needed not because of discrimination. It is a matter of ability.'   Mr Lee said he hoped the amendment would allay the worries of local civil servants and ensure fair competition.

  It is understood the local civil service union and the parties had reached an understanding that when the language requirement was stipulated in the blueprint of future common terms of appointment conditions, it should be stated in the long-term localisation plan.

 Legislators from the public services panel introduced a private member's bill freezing a policy of allowing all eligible expatriates to apply for a transfer, after the plan aroused strong opposition from local unions. The new plan, which is to replace that policy, will be launched in January and apply to all those whose contracts expire after September.



Chinese language urged for top jobs