Tourism minister Kevin Yeung (top left) and transport minister Lam Sai Hung (bottom left) will be replaced by housing director Rosanna Law (top right) and transport bureau permanent secretary Mable Chan respectively. - REUTERS, MAGDALENE FUNG, GOVHK
HONG KONG: Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee has fired his tourism and transport ministers in an unexpected move, replacing them with veteran officials he called proactive leaders with a “reform mindset”.
Tourism minister Kevin Yeung, 61, and transport minister Lam Sai Hung, 63, have been replaced by housing director Rosanna Law, 56, and the transport bureau’s permanent secretary, Mable Chan, 58, respectively.
At a special press conference on Thursday (Dec 5), Lee thanked the outgoing ministers for their contributions and expressed confidence in their successors, adding that Law and Chan have more than 30 years of “excellent performance, administrative and management experience in the government service”.
“I appreciate their leadership skills, strong abilities to explain (their policies) and proactiveness. They have a reform mindset and support our governance philosophy,” the chief executive added.
The move was recommended by Lee and approved by China’s State Council, according to an official statement released by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Lee repeatedly sidestepped reporters’ questions on why the two ministers were fired, saying instead that he had concluded, after a period of observation, that their replacements would provide effective leadership to produce the best results for Hong Kong.
“It is very important for a leader to be forthcoming, able to anticipate problems, find solutions and also to build up the team,” he said.
“I want a team that can deliver what I have in mind... achieve the best results in the shortest period of time, due to all the time we lost during the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2019 mass protests... and one that can ensure the public understands and appreciates our policies.”
Lee also evaded questions on whether other ministers deemed to be underperforming could also face the axe, including environment minister Tse Chin Wan, whose waste-tax policy recently courted controversy and was eventually scrapped.
Both the tourism and transport ministries were set up only in 2022 in a government reorganisation when Lee took office.
Yeung, the outgoing Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, was in October singled out in Lee’s annual policy address for failing to submit in time a blueprint for developing Hong Kong’s creative industries. The plan was eventually submitted in November.
His ministry has also received flak over the past year for its management of a range of costly but sometimes botched “mega events” to spur the city’s flagging economy amid falling retail spending and less-than-ideal tourism figures.
In February alone, the ministry came under fire, first after football star Lionel Messi sat out of a sold-out match in Hong Kong where nearly 40,000 fans paid upwards of HK$1,000 (S$172) to watch him play; and later, for using HK$7.8 million to fund an open-air art installation of giant heart-shaped balloons across the city and calling it a “mega event”.
“Thank you, everyone, for your concern,” Mr Yeung wrote on Facebook shortly after his dismissal. “The seas and skies are broad and vast; embarking onto the next stage of life.”
Yeung, who has been in government service since 1992, was education minister under former chief executive Carrie Lam from 2017 to 2022, before being appointed to head the tourism bureau under Lee.
In October, Lee praised him for his swift response over a spate of monkey deaths at the city’s zoo.
Lam, the outgoing Secretary for Transport and Logistics, has faced an uphill task of contending with a continuous decline in Hong Kong’s container traffic amid stiff competition with other major Asian maritime hubs.
More recently, his ministry has also been grappling with the challenges of regulating illegal private ride-hailing services such as Uber as residents tire of Hong Kong taxi drivers’ notoriously poor services and safety records.
Lam, a civil engineer by training, has been in government service since 1983. He was called out of retirement to head the transport bureau under Lee in 2022.
Veteran lawmaker and Executive Council convenor Regina Ip said it was an appropriate time for the government to inject “new blood”, appointing two “young and energetic” ministers, as there was plenty of important work ahead for the tourism and transport bureaus.
Another good thing about the two new ministers, Law and Chan, is that they “contribute to greater female representation in Lee’s male-dominated administration”, Associate Professor Alfred Wu, from Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, told The Straits Times.
With the addition of the duo, one-third – or seven out of 21 – of the official members in the Chief Executive’s Executive Council are women. Previously, Lee’s Cabinet already had the highest proportion of women in any of Hong Kong’s post-colonial administrations.
Although the removal of the two outgoing ministers came at Lee’s recommendation, he would not have done so without the blessings of, or perhaps an instruction from Beijing, political commentator Chris Yeung said.
“Beijing’s say in official appointments and the overall governance of Hong Kong is now much greater than before... It can no longer condone underperformers,” Yeung told ST.
“The pressure is increasing on John Lee’s administration to improve the economy and people’s livelihood. I won’t be surprised if more heads roll in the second half of his term.”
Prof Wu said: “There were already signs that things were not going well for the outgoing ministers, especially when John Lee singled out Kevin Yeung for his delayed blueprint.”
But he added that the removal of Yeung and Lam does not necessarily mean that Beijing has a negative assessment of their overall performance.
“Beijing is now a crucial actor in Hong Kong’s politics... but its thinking can be quite opaque,” he said.
“We shall have to wait and see if they are appointed to any other roles in the future, such as to China’s political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.”
Law, the new tourism chief, declined to comment on her predecessor’s performance, but said she is confident in her new role.
“Opportunities are everywhere. And so my priority would be to learn the latest development of my bureau’s work and then to meet old friends, make new friends, have candid, useful, constructive discussions with all stakeholders, with a view of bringing culture, sports and tourism to new heights,” she told reporters.
Chan, the new transport secretary, pledged to push forward her bureau’s existing plans to ensure they are “implemented and constructed on time and within budget”. - The Straits Times/ANN
