Civil Service Chief: New Test Will Hit Applications

Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip admitted on Saturday that a new test on the national security law for would-be government workers will reduce the number of people seeking such roles, but he said he was confident the administration would be able to bring in enough talent.

The government announced this week that the new test would take effect by the middle of next year. It will be incorporated into an existing examination on the Basic Law.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, Nip said applications for civil service jobs would usually fall after huge changes in the SAR, but would typically recover later.

"I think finding the right people is the most important," he said. "I expect applicant numbers to drop, especially after our society experienced so many events over the past two years – the riots, the national security law, improvements to our electoral system.

"For our recruitment exercise this year, I saw the applicant figures drop for administrative and executive officer posts ... by about 30 percent.

"But still, we got 9,700 people applying for administrative officer posts. Every year we want to hire more people but still we only recruit 30 at most. Competition is still high."