Leung to scrap revamp to prioritise poverty and housing

Leung Chun-ying's administration was preparing last night to sweep its embattled restructuring plan under the carpet for the time being as it seeks to deal with pressing livelihood issues such as poverty and housing.

It means the existing government structure, which the chief executive was once so keen to revamp, even before he took office, will remain.

And he will continue without the previously planned new deputies for the chief secretary and financial secretary and the two new policy bureaus in technology and culture.

Leung said yesterday he would announce his decision on the revamp in the Legislative Council today.

The South China Morning Post understands that he is also very likely to announce the appointment today of two new members to the Executive Council - New People's Party chairwoman Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee and Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung, of the Business and Professionals Alliance.

A government source said the chief executive would tell legislators the restructuring would not be launched in the near future.

"The government needs to prioritise its work. You have to decide where you put your efforts and energy," the source said. "Compared with other burning issues such as housing and poverty alleviation, revamping the government structure is not the top priority at this stage."

The source said even a scaled-down version, creating a new policy bureau like the technology and communications bureau, would unnecessarily spark another round of controversy.

This was criticised by pan-democrat Charles Mok, of the information technology sector, who said Leung had failed to deliver on his election pledge to set up a technology bureau.

"There are always burning issues and [the decision] just demonstrates how impotent the government is," he said.

Executive councillor Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun said the creation of a technology and communications bureau was worth exploring if there was a broad-based consensus for it.

Law, head of Leung's transition office before he formally took up his post in July, spearheaded the efforts to promote the restructuring plan, which was foiled by lawmakers' delaying tactics in the previous term.

Sing Ming, a political scientist in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said the public was not keen on the revamp plan and it would be too costly for the government to force it through.

"The fundamental problem is the public mistrust towards Leung's administration," he said.