¡¡¡¡HONG KONG, Nov. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Hong Kong's civil servants have been doing more with less staff and resources, said a high-ranking HK official on Wednesday.

¡¡¡¡"We have reduced the number of Civil Service posts by 10 percent - from 198,000 in early 2000 to 178,800 by October this year," said Donald Tsang, HK's chief secretary for administration.

¡¡¡¡Tsang told guests at the fifth anniversary dinner of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors that the actual number of civil servants now stands at 172,000 - about the same as it was in the mid 1980s.

¡¡¡¡"This is no mean feat. Particularly when over the same period our population has grown from about 5.5 million to 6.7 million," said Tsang.

¡¡¡¡"In 2000, we introduced the first Voluntary Retirement Scheme and since then more than 9,500 civil servants have left the government of their own choice. The scheme enabled departments to improve services through business re-engineering and outsourcing without resorting to compulsory redundancy," said the chief secretary.

¡¡¡¡"These staff cuts, coupled with an Enhanced Productivity Program, have helped us save 6 billion HK dollars (769 million US dollars) of taxpayers' money a year. The recently implemented Civil Service pay cut and cut in salary-related subventions will shave another 3.2 billion HK dollars (410 million US dollars) a year off the government's expenditure," he said. Enditem