Tearful Lily Yam announces retirement

Secretary for Environment and Food Lily Yam Kwan Pui-ying announced yesterday she will retire at the end of June - bringing to an end the 30-year civil service career of the woman nicknamed the 'Iron Butterfly' for her toughness.

She fought back tears in Legco when Frontier legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing spoke of the 'great loss' to Hong Kong of a competent policy secretary.

Ms Yam later told reporters: 'All I can say is that I have been very proud to be a civil servant. I will miss my colleagues . . . But most of all, I will miss the people of Hong Kong.'

Ms Yam, who is 56 in July, dismissed suggestions that her departure was prompted by the Chief Executive's new accountability system for senior officials, or health problems.

Ms Yam, who underwent breast cancer surgery in 2000, joined the Government in 1969. After a brief time away from the civil service, she later became commissioner for transport between 1995 and 1997, and took over her current post in 1999. Her major task was dealing with the bird flu crisis.

She plans to take an art history course at Cambridge University and travel to Russia and Eastern Europe before returning in August.