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Carrie Lam
Hong KongPolitics

Carrie Lam unveils her ‘ideal team’ of mostly familiar faces

Incoming Hong Kong leader waves aside questions on whether central government turned down her first choices for ministerial posts

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Carrie Lam’s cabinet lines up for the media on Wednesday. Photo: Sam Tsang
Joyce NgandJeffie Lam
With just over a week to go before she takes over as Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam Cheng ­Yuet-ngor has unveiled a cabinet dominated by old faces, calling it the “ideal” team to launch her new style of governance and ­rebuild social harmony.
But the chief executive-elect yesterday brushed aside queries on whether Beijing had rejected her first picks for the dream team she had sought, and was vague on how she would handle mounting pressure to relaunch two contentious tasks shelved by her predecessors – enacting national security legislation and making national education compulsory in schools.

Introducing her team to the media after the central government approved and announced the appointments, Lam conceded that rather than the new talent she had promised, it mostly comprised incumbents and veteran bureaucrats. But she praised them as “passionate, capable and committed”.

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“Though some will say my governing team consists of familiar faces, I wish to say they all agree with my new style of governance,” she said. “Officials on fiscal matters have no disagreement with my new philosophy on public ­finance management.

“Apparently people say there is no pleasant surprise. This also means no shock. This will be a ­stable team, a team of action.”

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