The government on Thursday held an exchange session with lawmakers-elect that focused on the executive-legislative relationship and SAR's economic development ahead of the start of the new Legislative Council term.

Of the 70 legislators-elect who were present at the event held at the Central Government Offices in Admiralty, 30 of them were new faces, including Olympic gold medallist Vivian Kong from the tourism constituency and longtime Sai Kung district councillor Christine Fong.

Chief Secretary Eric Chan said in his opening speech that the session would help the administration and Legco work closely together.

"We hope that by carrying out early exchanges with lawmakers-elect, we can build a consensus when a policy is at the stage of formulation so that the government's policy implementation can better align with the public's opinion," he said.

Chan went on to say the administration is looking forward to seeing the lawmakers-elect scrutinise bills in a "high quality and high effective" manner and taking forward bills that help boost the city's competitiveness.

It is also crucial to strengthen the executive-legislative relationship, he said, as building a consensus holds the key to transforming the 15th Five-Year Plan into tangible achievements and allowing Hong Kong to capitalise on the nation's strategic opportunities.

The administration will work closely with the new Legco in carrying out reforms following the Tai Po fire and supporting the affected residents, Chan added.

One of the legislators-elect, Kenneth Fok, said after the meeting that he hopes engagements between the government and Legco could start earlier in future.

"The government's decision-making process, no matter if it's in legislation or even funding requests or approvals, they could engage us at an earlier time. Because I believe that our interaction within the Legco building may be short, but our working relationship begins much earlier," he said.

"I hope the general public can understand that the interaction between the government and Legco starts in the early period and it's actually a very deep discussion."

Chris Ip from the DAB said he hopes officials could start collecting legislators' views even when a policy is only at the formulation stage as he believes that would allow the government to better gather public opinions to implement policies more smoothly.

Judy Chan of the New People's Party said the administration has to reach out to residents more often.

"All the government officials, they should be like one of us, one of the legislative [councillors] from the general elections, to really get into the community and touch base with all the residents and talk to the residents... and really hear what they say [and] what they feel," she said.

The Federation of Trade Unions said it hopes more job opportunities could be created by boosting the city's development and suggested the administration offer more training for workers to tackle the changes brought on by artificial intelligence.

Top government officials, including Financial Secretary Paul Chan and Secretary for Justice Paul Lam, along with a number of bureau chiefs and undersecretaries, were among those joining the exchange.