RETIRING chairman of the Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC), Hamish Mathers, said his successor Jack So Chak-kwong's biggest challenge was to carry out MTRC's present initiatives.
'We have a lot of initiatives on-going at the moment. I would advise him to continue to carry out these things. You don't want to change the world overnight,' said Mr Mathers before he left for England last night after six years with the corporation.
He said the MTRC's initiatives covered areas of customer service, safety, succession planning, the airport railway project and strengthening corporate transparency both to government bodies and customers.
He said Mr So would also be an ideal person to forge a good relationship with China, where the MTRC is providing help in staff training for underground lines being built on the mainland.
'His experience in finance, property development and administration, together with his knowledge of the Hong Kong environment and an understanding of working in China and the relationships involved, will certainly be beneficial to the corporation in enabling it to achieve its objective as the most customer-orientated railway in the world,' he said.
Mr Mathers said the MTRC would continue its commitment to staff localisation which, he said, should begin at the lower levels.
'I think you've got to start at the bottom and get the training and development programme on stream.