Press Release - September 10, 2004

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Canada) today (September 10) invited people who are interested in joining civil service posts at degree or professional level in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (HKSARG) to sit for the Common Recruitment Examination (CRE) scheduled for January 8, 2005. Holders of degree or professional qualifications or undergraduates who will have attained a degree in 2005 are eligible to apply.

The HKETO also announced that the HKSARG will soon conduct a recruitment exercise to select up to 30 candidates for appointment as Administrative Officers (AOs) on civil service terms. University students who are undergraduates taking their final degree examinations in summer 2005 are eligible to apply.

Both application period will run from tomorrow (September 11). The deadline for application of the CRE is September 28, 2004 and the AOs on September 30, 2004. Applicants must be Hong Kong permanent citizens and have resided in Hong Kong for not less than seven years.

Details of the two applications will be advertised on Ming Pao Daily News and Sing Tao Daily on September 11, 18 and 25 respectively.

�I strongly urge overseas Hong Kong residents, who are interested in joining the government team to sit for the CRE examination and apply for the AOs posts,� said the Director of the HKETO, Mr Bassanio So.

�The prospect of AOs is very promising as they form a cadre of multi-skilled professional administrators who play a key role in the HKSARG. They are involved in policy formulation, resource allocation and implementation of major Government programmes and enjoy variety in their career and contribute to different areas of work in the HKSARG,� he added.

The Common Recruitment Examination consists of three one-hour papers in multiple-choice format � Use of Chinese, Use of English and Aptitude Test. Candidates may choose to sit for only the language papers or all three papers, depending on the requirements of the posts for which they would like to apply.

As a general requirement in a language proficiency, applicants to civil service posts at degree or professional level in Hong Kong will first have to obtain a pass in the two language papers, namely Use of Chinese and Use of English in the CRE. Some of these grades also require applicants to pass the Aptitude Test of the CRE.

�An overall band of 6.5 or above with no subtest score below band 6 obtained in the same sitting in the Academic Module of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) are accepted as equivalent to a pass in the Use of English paper of the CRE within 2 years from the date of the IELTS test. Candidates with IELTS results meeting the designated scores can thus choose not to take the Use of English paper when they apply for the examination. However, no other examination results are currently accepted as equivalent to a pass in the Use of Chinese or Aptitude Test papers of the CRE,� Mr So said.

�Potential CRE applicants may submit their application on-line at the CSB website. They are required to send their academic proof by post to the Civil Service Examination Unit at Room 2011, 20th Floor, 9 Queen�s Road Central, Hong Kong within four calendar days from the day of the on-line applications,� Mr. So said.

In addition to centres in Hong Kong, examination centres will be set up in six overseas cities, including London, San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney.

Application forms of CRE (CSB 31 (10/2003) can be downloaded from the CSB website (http://www.csb.gov.hk). Information relating to the operation of the CRE and details of the application are available at the CSB homepage. Enquiries can be made to the Civil Services Examinations Unit of the HKSARG by phone (852-2537-6429) or email ([email protected])

With regards to the AOs posts, application forms (CSB 606 and CSB 606A) (9/2004) can be downloaded from the Civil Service Bureau's website (http://www.csb.gov.hk), starting from tomorrow. Applicants can also make on-line applications directly through this web site. Applicants should only submit one application, either by post or by on-line application. Applications submitted by fax or email will not be accepted. Duplicate applications will result in delay in processing and applicants may not get sufficient notice for being invited to attend the examinations.

As a special arrangement to facilitate overseas candidates, the HKSARG will invite AO applicants in this coming recruitment exercise without the requisite CRE result to attend the next CRE to be held in Toronto and Vancouver on January 8, 2005.


For more information, please contact: John Tam, Chief Information Officer of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office at: (416) 924-5544 or email: [email protected] or Elison Chu, Senior Information Office, [email protected].