Hong Kong protests: ‘Dialogue Office’ launched to help city’s leader Carrie Lam resolve crisis
- Move attracts concern that government will fall back on familiar faces in its own network if it does not quickly cast its net wider
- Outfit set up under research unit the Policy Innovation and Coordination Office will be headed by retired bureaucrat Warner Cheuk
A new “Dialogue Office” to help coordinate Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s efforts to solve the protest crisis gripping the city has attracted scepticism on whether the government will engage the right sectors and not fall back on familiar faces in its own network.
The outfit was set up on Monday under the Policy Innovation and Coordination Office (PICO), a research unit reporting directly to Lam, according to a notice to government bureaus and departments.
In the notice, PICO said the new office was set up “on a time-limited basis” and would “take charge of coordinating the dialogue platform programmes initiated by the government and suggestions made by the non-government sector”.
The new office is headed by Warner Cheuk Wing-hing, who joined the government as a police inspector in 1981 and retired as permanent secretary for innovation and technology earlier this year.
A government statement said Cheuk was appointed on non-civil service terms for a period of six months. PICO would give administrative support to the new office, it said.