Reducing the salary of Hong Kong’s public servants is just the beginning.
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As Hong Kong anticipates the financial secretary’s budget speech on February 26, public discourse has centred on addressing the city’s deficit, including potential pay cuts for senior civil servants and principal officials. Meanwhile, in the US, the Trump administration has embarked on an efficiency drive. I believe the current debate is missing the big picture.
The Civil Service Bureau’s pay level survey, designed to benchmark civil service compensation against the private sector, was suspended last year; it was last implemented in 2011-2014. The Standing Commission on Civil Service Salaries and Conditions of Service cited market instability for this suspension, and this leaves us without objective data for a meaningful discussion on pay adjustments.
Anecdotal market information seems to suggest that the pay for the higher echelons of government is not over the top compared with the private sector. But disparities exist at the junior and middle levels, particularly in administrative roles.
For instance, administrative officers start at over HK$60,000 monthly, substantially exceeding corporate management trainee packages. Senior clerical officers (HK$49,230-61,865) and senior executive officers (HK$82,330-119,650) also command significantly higher salaries than their private sector counterparts.
The issue extends beyond compensation. Hong Kong’s civil service, while ensuring transparency and fairness through robust processes, often sacrifices efficiency and innovation. The government’s tendency to establish new departments or task forces for fresh initiatives, rather than optimise existing operations, warrants scrutiny.
Administrative and secretarial functions alone comprise nearly 20 per cent of civil service positions – an area ripe for technological optimisation through artificial intelligence and digital solutions. For example, Shenzhen has just launched “AI civil servants” using the DeepSeek R-1 model.
While the Digital Policy Office is tasked with modernising government operations, success requires fundamental reskilling of civil servants still operating in outdated paradigms (e.g. with faxes and CD-ROMs). It also calls for a comprehensive rethink of government functions and regulatory frameworks, and for the civil service to adapt to the digital age.
Pay cuts alone will not address the many more deep-rooted issues but a volatile labour market is no excuse for putting on hold the pay level survey. Like it or not, market volatility is the new normal.
Hong Kong does not need to set up its own Department of Government Efficiency as the Digital Policy Office already covers this function. What is needed is resolute steering from the chief executive to build a more efficient and technologically adept civil service that delivers value for money to Hong Kong’s taxpayers.
Rachel Chan, North Point
Thorough review of tertiary education sector needed
The financial secretary will be unveiling Hong Kong’s budget this week. Recent indications are that the funding for our eight public universities will be adjusted over the next three years due to the overall deficit facing the government.
I have served as a council member at both the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology over the years. Every time I raised the subject of privatising one of our universities, I was told it was not the right time.
Many leading universities around the world are private institutions with substantial endowments which then enable them to attract high-calibre professors as well as cream-of-the-crop students without the constraints of having to deal with government regulations. It is high time we did an in-depth review of our system of relying on the University Grants Committee to oversee this important aspect of our society.
The other question is: does one city need eight public universities? Hong Kong Polytechnic should never have been turned into a university. It should have remained a vocational institute. Every society needs good vocational staff such as electrical and mechanical engineers.
Our government should review the tertiary education system especially when Hong Kong’s prospects depend on our government officials taking a fresh look at this anchor of our city’s future. We now live in a rapidly changing world being disrupted by technology and geopolitics. We can no longer afford to muddle along and hope things will improve without overhauling old thinking. Time to think outside the box.
