Hong Kong will carry on its executive-led political system in order to promote economic and social development, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Tung Chee Hwa said Hong Kong on January 13.

Tung made the remarks when addressing the Legislative Council session on the Executive-Legislature Relationship.

"To meet the expectations of the public, whilst maintaining Hong Kong's stability and prosperity, we must retain the efficient executive-led political system and strengthen the civil service-based administrative structure," Tung stressed.

Tung noted that the Basic Law has been implemented only for 31 months. "We are still adjusting and are gaining experience in this process, and we must allow time for further study and for the present political system to mature," he added.

"The Basic Law has laid down a 10-year timetable to enable us to consider the next step forward in the light of our political experience during that time," the chief executive said.

The development must be in accordance with the principle of orderly and gradual progress and should be designed to be acceptable to different sectors of the community, he said.

The design of the Basic Law for Hong Kong's political structure centers around an executive-led system. This is manifested in the articles which stipulate the powers and functions of the Executive and the Legislature and their inter-relationship, Tung said.

According to the Basic Law, the Executive is accountable to the Legislature in four respects: implementing laws passed by the Legislative Council and already in force; presenting regular policy addresses to the Council; answering questions raised by members of the Council; and obtaining approval for taxation and public expenditure.

These provisions of the Basic Law embody the wisdom distilled from decades of experience in Hong Kong's governance, and retain the best features of Hong Kong's political system, Tung said.

Tung said: "the object of these provisions is to maintain the distinctive characteristics of an executive-led system and preserve the efficient administration of Hong Kong to safeguard our stability and prosperity."

"In the last two and a half years, we have a creative, efficient and clean civil service of outstanding quality," said Tung.

Although there are isolated cases of negligence, and there is room for improvement, the civil service on the whole have played a most important role in the implementation of the principle of "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" and in the formulation and execution of policies, he said.

"In the last two and a half years, we have met the challenges of the transition and the Asian financial turmoil. In the meantime, we have implemented the 'One Country, Two Systems' framework, overcome the Asian financial crisis and stabilized the local financial markets, and the economy has started to pick up," he said.

"Such progress proves that the present system and the civil service team are delivering the goods, and that we are truly able to serve the people of Hong Kong," he stressed.

In the past year or so, Tung said, all major bills were supported and passed by the Legislative Council. Often this has been made possible through extensive consultation, he added.

This demonstrates that Members of the Legislative Council and the government do take into account the overall interest of Hong Kong, Tung explained. He said that this also bears testimony to the fact that the Executive and the Legislature are functioning well in accordance with the Basic Law.

"Of course, we should not be complacent about our cooperation in the last year, and we must learn from our experience and redouble our efforts, so that we can give full play to our respective roles," Tung said. (Xinhua)