Lawmakers have praised the inaugural dialogue session with the chief executive on Tuesday as a productive and constructive exchange, describing it as a significant step forward in executive-legislative engagement.

The meeting, which drew 67 legislators, saw 15 of them take the floor to voice views on a broad spectrum of issues.

Chief coordinator Stanley Ng, who also heads the Federation of Trade Unions, said the session was both highly effective and successful, fostering positive synergy between the executive and legislative branches.

Lawmaker Judy Chan voiced support for more regular exchanges of this kind.

"The chief executive has actually shared a lot of how he views the working relationship or partnership with his administration as well as the Legislative Council," she said.

"It is great to always keep our mind open and engagement is really important for us to get the job done. That's why I hope that we will have more opportunities for this style of dialogue in the future."

Ronick Chan, fellow chief coordinator and chairman of the house committee, noted that the atmosphere was notably relaxed and the discussion wide-ranging.

Legislators used the opportunity to share their aspirations for the Northern Metropolis development, as well as reflections from their recent study tour in Beijing.

Ronick Chan specifically contrasted mainland and local public service systems.

He pointed out that Beijing’s “12345” citizen service hotline integrates all municipal departments to jointly handle public inquiries, with clear performance targets and follow-up mechanisms to ensure issues are fully resolved.

By comparison, he said, Hong Kong’s “1823” hotline often serves mainly as a referral service.

"Many of my fellow councillors and I feel that the key question is how we can ensure that citizens' inquiries or appeals are actually followed through and resolved completely," he said.

"This, I believe, is the main difference between the citizen service hotline we observed during our visit and the current hotline system we have in Hong Kong."

He believes that Beijing's approach is worth emulating.

Chan Hoi-yan, who spoke during the session, highlighted the sincerity of the communication.

Issues that previously had little chance of being raised with the government were now firmly on the table, she said.

"During the dialogue session, I specifically raised some livelihood issues – namely, how communication between the Legislative Council and the government could be improved and made more smooth. On this point, the chief executive spoke very candidly," she said.

"We also cited examples from various past policies and the communication processes involved when legislation was introduced. So from that perspective, I feel that the chief executive is aware that all along, in the council, we have all been very earnest in our communication on these matters, with the aim of getting things done."

Priscilla Leung used her floor time to address Northern Metropolis, social governance and broader development issues.

She said that the dialogue format – unconstrained by the Legislative Council’s rules of procedure – enables genuine, unfiltered communication and is remarkably efficient.

Leung joined her colleagues in urging that such sessions be held more frequently in the future.




Edited by Tony Sabine