The Government would continue to keep close touch with the media to better promote its work to the people and to further increase transparency in its administration, said the Secretary for Administration and Justice, Ms Chan Hoi Fan. The press is an important conduit to enhance mutual understanding between the government and the people as it would help give the public better knowledge of the government's policies and measures, she said. Ms Chan was speaking in a meeting on 7 January with more than 30 representatives from local news outlets reporting in the Chinese, Portuguese and English languages. The representatives were also invited to share their suggestions on how to enhance the work in public administration, legal affairs and disseminating information to the people. Efficient administration, incessantly enhancing public service quality, promoting government's execution and recognition, and pragmatically enhancing legal ruling were the priorities of her position, Ms Chan said. To work in accordance with the principles of "putting people first" and "scientific decision-making", the Government strived to offer better services to meet the growing needs of the people. In the meeting, the media representatives suggested that the Government put more efforts to increase its administration transparency, promote new policies in an easier-to-understand way for the people, and to build a more comprehensive mechanism in releasing information to the press. Ms Chan said monitoring by the media was important in helping enhance the administration's efficiency.
