The Chief Executive, Mr. Tung Chee-hwa, today unveiled his fourth policy address to the Legislative Council, focusing on education, poverty and governance issues.

In his address, he said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (HKSARG) had accepted the Education Commission's reform recommendations.

"As education is our most important long-term investment, we are determined to continue to provide the necessary resources," Mr. Tung said, adding that implementation of reform proposals would increase annual expenditure on education by about C$3.8 billion.

Total spending on education in this financial year alone amounts to C$10.46 billion, an increase of 43 per cent compared to that before the 1997 reunification.

Noting that the total expenditure on education now represents 4.25 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product, Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Canada, Mrs Rosanna Ure emphasized that this underlines the significance the HKSAR attaches to nurturing our human resources.

Mr. Tung also mapped out a two-prong approach to help the needy and poor particularly those affected by the Asian financial turmoil and the arrival of the knowledge-based New Economy.

He said the problem of poverty was not unique to Hong Kong and that it was not easy to address. The Chief Executive pointed out that in any economic development there would be issues of poverty and income disparity.

"We plan to allocate over C$520 million in the next two years to finance various measures to help the poor. But I must point out once again that the fundamental way to address the poverty problem is to create ample employment opportunities through sustained economic growth and continuously upgrade the quality of people's skills through education," Mr. Tung stressed.

Commenting on the need to enhance the accountability of principal officials, Mr. Tung said: "We would need to consider devising a compatible system of appointment for these principal officials, setting out their powers and responsibilities and at the same time defining clearly their role in formulating and implementing government policies under the news system."

Mr. Tung said he would also examine ways of strengthening communication between executive authorities and the Legislative Council.

Mrs Ure pointed out that the Policy Address also reviewed the progress made in the past year in areas such as how to improve our soft and hard infrastructure of the knowledge-based New Economy, how to improve the quality of our environment, and progress made in implementing measures to reform our financial institutions and so on. These are meant to sharpen and consolidate Hong Kong's edge as a world class business and financial centre and will produce long term dividends to the territory.

For the full text of the Policy Address, please visit e-mail: www.info.gov.hk/pa00/eindex.htm/

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