Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang presented eight new members of the special administrative region's Executive Council (ExCo) at a press conference on October 14.

"As a result of the eight new appointments, the composition of ExCo will become more pluralistic. The pluralistic views will enable us to consider things from different angles when we ink our policies and to enhance the quality of policies," he told the media.

The new appointees, to assume office on November 1, will raise the number of non-official ExCo members to 15.

The eight new faces evoked no surprise, for their inclusion had been widely speculated on by the media in recent weeks.

Among the newcomers were Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Chairman Charles Lee, who was an ExCo member from 1997 to 2002, and Hong Kong Jockey Club Chairman Ronald Arculli.

Bank of East Asia Chairman David Li, Donald Tsang's election campaign manager, was appointed alongside Elderly Commission Chairman Edward Leong, who stepped down as Hospital Authority Chairman when he accepted responsibility for the SARS disaster.

The other appointees included CITIC Pacific's Managing Director Henry Fan, Chairman of the Supervisory Committee for the Tracker Fund of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Non-Executive Director Marvin Cheung, and Gold Peak Industries (Holdings) Ltd Chairman Victor Lo.

The eighth appointee was former vice-chairman of the Democratic Party, Professor Anthony Cheung of the City University of Hong Kong's Department of Public and Social Administration.

Tsang said old and new non-official members would have their own specialties, with better division of labor to allow each to contribute more ideas during policy formulation.

He also announced the reestablishment of the post of ExCo convener, to be filled by Leung Chun-ying.

The Democratic Alliance for Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and the Liberal Party welcomed the new appointments, but the Democratic Party, The Frontier and Article 45 Concern Group expressed disappointment because they said grassroots and political parties had been ignored.

Tsang said: "I have said before that I will not use the Executive Council to conduct political horse-trading ...The most important thing is to find the ablest persons to take part in ExCo's work."

Incumbent ExCo member and DAB legislator Tsang Yok-sing said Anthony Cheung's appointment would help the government resolve controversial issues: "We all agree that he is committed to Hong Kong and has good ideas on issues of public concern. I believe he will reflect the values of certain sectors such as the middle class and academics."

(China Daily October 17, 2005)