Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai yesterday convened the first meetings of the two leadership groups he set up earlier this month, namely the Leadership Group for Public Administration Reform and the Leadership Group for Promoting the Development of the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, underlining that the establishment of the two leadership groups aims to ensure the implementation of the spirit of the various important speeches made by President Xi Jinping during his inspection visit to Macau in December last year, the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS) announced in a statement yesterday.
According to the statement, Sam reaffirmed that the two leadership groups chaired by him aim to enhance governance capability and to strengthen top-level guidance and cross-departmental coordination.
In addition to the two leadership groups, Sam also set up three coordination or working groups earlier this month chaired by Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon, namely the Coordination Group for Public Administration Reform, the Working Group for Coordinating Legal Matters, and the Working Group for Urban Beautification and Cleanliness.
According to yesterday’s statement, the meetings of the two leadership groups were attended by Sam’s five policy secretaries and his chief-of-cabinet Chan Kak. In addition, yesterday’s meeting of the Leadership Group for Public Administration Reform was also attended by Chan Chi Kin, acting director of the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP). Chan Chi Kin is one of the bureau’s three deputy directors.
According to the statement, yesterday’s meeting of the Leadership Group for Public Administration Reform covered various topics related to further boosting governance capability and public-administration service quality, such as improving public entities’ powers, responsibilities, functions, duties, organisational structures, and personnel systems, strengthening and improving the management of officials of bureaus and other bureau-level entities, deepening the development of e-government, and expanding the government’s e-service aiming to make it more convenient for residents and businesses to complete public administrative formalities.
Sam underlined during the meeting that the important point of Macau’s public administration reform should be to revamp its civil service team with the aim of enabling them to meet the city’s current socioeconomic situation and its development needs in various aspects.
Moreover, the statement said, the Leadership Group for Public Administration Reform is also planning to promote cooperation between the Commission of Audit (CA) and the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau in jointly conducting performance audits concerning the public administration’s use of its human resources with the aim of ensuring their rational use.
During yesterday’s meeting of the Leadership Group for Promoting the Development of the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, according to the statement, Sam urged his five policy secretaries to thoroughly understand and implement the requirements laid out by Xia Baolong, who heads both the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office (HKMWO) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) during his fact-finding visit to Hengqin early this month.
Sam urged his five policy secretaries to strengthen the government’s cross-departmental coordination and to ensure the implementation of key tasks in various fields, with the aim of further facilitating the convenient flow of talents, capital and goods in Hengqin, complying with the projected “Macau + Hengqin” new strategic positioning, and advancing the high-quality achievements in the in-depth cooperation zone’s second-phase development goals.
This handout photo released by the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS) yesterday shows Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai addressing yesterday’s meeting of one of the two leadership groups.
