Hong Kong's Beijing-appointed leader promised a modest range of measures to boost the economy in his maiden state-of-the territory speech Wednesday but sidestepped the thorny issue of democratic reform.
In a steady-as-she-goes Policy Address setting out the political agenda for the coming year, Chief Executive Donald Tsang said he would shake up the city's political establishment, giving more voice to the lowest levels of government and enlarging his cabinet of advisers.
But there were scant details on his constitutional duty to increase the level of democracy in the former British colony, leaving that thorny and divisive matter to a report he said would be published later in the month.
"Pursuing excellence in governance is the most pressing public demand on the government today," Tsang told lawmakers in a 90-minute address in the historic Legislative Council chamber.
"We need a strong government to promote social harmony and enhance economic growth. Strong government is a prerequisite for economic development."
On the economic front, Tsang made no mention of hoped-for tax cuts but vowed to widen a free-trade pact with mainland China and allow greater currency alignment.
At the top of his political agenda was a plan to increase the size of the appointed Executive Council, or cabinet, and give more power to top officials, the financial secretary and the chief secretary, who heads the civil service.
The move effectively scraps the ministerial accountability system that his predecessor Tung Chee-hwa created three years ago and which many feel has failed the Chinese boomtown.
Tsang also said the lower levels of elected government - the District Councils - would be given more responsibility in the running of local facilities.
He would also seek to encourage more people to enter the political arena and allow civil servants, presently barred from politics, to stand for election.
However, on the question of democratic reform, for which there has been huge clamour in recent years, he passed the buck to a task force he said would publish proposals, possibly as early as next week.
"I firmly believe that the proposed methods will mark a key milestone in the development of democracy in Hong Kong," he said in his speech, without giving details of what is likely to be contained in the report.
Tsang is obliged by the Basic Law local constitution, which came into effect when the British colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, to steer the city towards an electoral system based on universal suffrage.
Presently only half the 60 legislators are directly elected and the chief executive is selected by an 800-strong cabal of mostly pro-Beijing elites.
Although China last year rejected pro-democrats' demands that the next chief executive be directly elected by 2007, it provided for gradual progress toward "the ultimate goal of universal suffrage".
Insensed democrats said they felt cheated by Tsang's lack of any pointers on reform.
"I am disappointed that there were no concrete proposals for constitutional development," lawmaker Lee Wing-tat, chairman of the leading pro-democracy organisation, the Democratic Party, said outside the chamber afterwards. "I don't have much hope for a more democratic society," he added.
Tsang defended himself in a press conference afterwards saying Hong Kong was becoming a more open society.
"The important thing is that we are always on the move," he said. "Every time we have an election process, that election becomes more open, more people participate and more representatives." Before the speech began radical pro-democracy lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung was thrown out of the chamber when he refused to remove a yellow shawl inscribed with slogans protesting the "small circle" that elected Tsang leader.
Legislators on the other side of the political divide offered Tsang their support.
James Tien, chairman of the pro-business and pro-government Liberal Party, hailed the Policy Address as a boost for the economy.
"I am satisfied with what was proposed," he told reporters afterwards. "I'm especially satisfied with the measures for the economy, jobs and povery."
The market thought otherwise, with shares plunging more than two percent on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to their lowest level in months amid a lack of any strong leads to guide investors.
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