Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa yesterday held a brainstorming session with his new leadership team on policy directions for his second term.
The session, which lasted about 3.5 hours, was attended by 29 principal officials and permanent secretaries at Government House. All participants stayed on for dinner till about 8.45pm for more chats.
Attending the session were the Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung, Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie, all 11 politically appointed secretaries and 13 permanent secretaries.
Professor Lau Siu-kai, who will head the Central Policy Unit, and Lam Woon-kwong, director-designate of the Chief Executive's Office, also attended.
According to a government statement, the team discussed the vision for guiding Hong Kong forward. 'The session has been organised to enable the team to explore the challenges which the Hong Kong SAR Government will need to address during the second term,' a spokesman said.
The participants would not be drawn on the details of what was discussed.
Describing the exercise as 'useful', Professor Lau said: 'It offers an opportunity for those appointed from outside the civil service and the old faces [within the civil service] to get to know each other. It helps mould consensus and provide a sense of direction.'
