New faces to star in Hong Kong's new cabinet

Unchallenged Tung Chee-hwa won a second five-year term as Hong Kong's chief executive in February

(CNN) -- Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa will shortly announce a new cabinet that will include more businessmen, private-sector professionals, and pro-Beijing figures.

Under the new accountability or "ministerial" system, Tung is empowered by Beijing to appoint all 14 policy secretaries, who will report directly to the chief executive and serve at his pleasure.

Before this controversial constitutional change, most policy secretaries were senior civil servants who were supposed to be politically neutral.

Among the new faces are businessman Henry Tang, who will hold the portfolio for industry and IT, and Pacific Century CyberWorks executive Frederick Ma, who will look after financial services and the treasury.

College president Arthur Li and medical doctor Patrick Chan, both members Beijing's top advisory council, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), will become respectively secretary for education and secretary for home affairs.

The Special Administrative Region's (SAR) top three officials – Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, Financial Secretary Antony Leung and Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung, remain unchanged.

At the same time, Tung has expanded the cabinet, or Executive Council (Exco), from 13 to 20 members to accommodate the 14 secretaries and five leading politicians and trusted advisers.

The most important change is the induction into Exco of the chairmen of two pro-government parties: Tsang Yok-sing of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) and James Tien of the business-oriented Liberal Party.

With the appointment of the two party leaders, the government is assured of a majority in the Legislative Council (Legco), Hong Kong's legislature.

Tsang is also a CPPCC member. Another new Exco member, labor leader Cheng Yiu-tong, is a deputy to the National People's Congress.

Explaining the developments to Legco last week, Tung said "the government needs to give strong leadership in these difficult times."

Earlier, the Chief Executive had denied that he would only appoint yes men as secretaries or Exco members.

Henry Fok, a CPPCC vice-chairman and close adviser to Tung, also praised the new constitutional changes.

He said the accountability system would raise efficiency and ensure that each department would have clear-cut responsibilities.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin is due to be in Hong Kong on June 30 to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the foundation of the SAR.

He will swear in the SAR's new cabinet on July 1, which will also be marked by festivities including a fireworks display.

However, Tung's critics, including members of the Democratic Party, have pointed out the ministerial system will only work in a country or city with direct elections and checks and balances.

According to Vice-chairman of the Democratic Party and legislator Yeung Sum, under the new system, "officials will only be accountable to Tung, but not accountable to either the legislature or the public."