Meet incoming Hong Kong leader’s hand-picked executive team (and this time there are a few surprises)
Appointments announced a day after unveiling of Carrie Lam’s cabinet
A day after unveiling no-surprise cabinet, Hong Kong’s leader-in-waiting Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor introduced several new faces to her top executive body, including a moderate pan-democrat and a finance heavyweight.
The appointment of non-official members to the Executive Council on Thursday contrasted with the chief executive-elect’s cabinet announcement, which was said to contain no surprises as all but one minister were either inherited from predecessor Leung Chun-ying’s team or recruited from the civil service.
Exco, comprising the principal ministers and 16 non-official members, works with the chief executive to improve policies that have been discussed in policy bureaus to ensure successful passage in the Legislative Council.
The members work on the principles of confidentiality and collective responsibility. If the chief executive does not accept a majority opinion from Exco, he has to put the specific reasons on record.
Incumbent Exco member Bernard Chan, also the head of Lam’s campaign office, has been elevated to convenor of the top government decision-making body.
Lam also broke away from Leung’s practice of not appointing pan-democrats to Exco by picking former lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah. Tong quit the Civic Party in 2015 and later founded middle-of-the-road think tank Path of Democracy.