Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Joshua Law, at a media stand-up after the meeting of the Legislative Council Panel on Public Service today (October 16):

Reporter: Mr Law, some pan-democrat lawmakers said they are worrying that the civil service academy will become the Hong Kong branch of the communist party's school. You said you don't want any kind of labelling ....

Secretary for the Civil Service: I think we all understand that the main purpose of establishing a new civil service college is to enhance the training for our civil servants. Given that nowadays many of our policies and initiatives involve cross-boundary issues, it is quite natural that we need to enhance the training of our civil servants regarding the developments in the Mainland, regarding the Basic Law, regarding our country. So this is quite important and I cannot see why we need to have a different view about the initiatives that we are putting forward which are entirely appropriate and positive.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Monday, October 16, 2017
Issued at HKT 14:14

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