Poised to deliver his fourth policy address in September, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu is gearing up to show that his administration is delivering on his “result-oriented” leadership. This may be the reason he revealed last month that the government was considering a new accountability system for senior officials.
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Lee seems to have started paving the way for the proposed reform around the time the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development released its World Competitiveness Ranking in June. Hong Kong made it back into the top three for the first time since 2019, ranking third.
Lee quickly took credit for the city scoring 99.2 out of 100 by attributing the rise in the ranking to enhanced efficiency due to his civil service reforms. It’s worth noting the survey ranked Hong Kong second on government efficiency, beaten only by Switzerland.
It may be quite a leap to conclude that increased government efficiency came from civil service reforms. The institute ranked Hong Kong first for tax policy and business legislation. We ranked sixth in public finance, 10th in institutional framework and 30th for societal framework. These are all factors that the institute considers when scoring for government efficiency.
Switzerland, meanwhile, is first in institutional framework and fourth in societal framework. Singapore, which came in second overall, is second in institutional framework and 12th in societal framework.
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Institutional framework takes into account the adaptability and stability of government policy, and this is where I believe Lee is looking to improve. While Lee framed Hong Kong’s ranking as being the result of civil service reforms, recall that Hong Kong ranked first in government efficiency from 2019 to 2021.