Hong Kong can learn from Beijing for revamp of public inquiry hotline: lawmakers

Hong Kong authorities should revamp their public inquiry hotline to better handle residents’ complaints by learning from Beijing’s model, lawmakers have told the chief executive at the first “rules-free and warm-hearted” closed-door dialogue session.

While the current Legislative Council term marks the first since the 1997 handover not to hold any formal question and answer session with a city leader before the first summer recess, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu emphasised that the new form of dialogue would not replace established communication channels.

Sixty-seven lawmakers took part in the 1½-hour, closed-door meeting at Legco on Tuesday, with 15 of them speaking to Lee.

Topics covered at the meeting included lawmakers’ takeaways from their unprecedented week-long national affairs study trip to Beijing last week, with several legislators calling on the city leader to learn from practices in the capital.

Legco president Starry Lee Wai-king cited Beijing’s 12345 Citizen Hotline Service Centre, a one-stop platform for handling public complaints, and said Hong Kong’s 1823 public inquiry and complaint hotline could be improved upon by learning from the model.

“Lawmakers proposed visiting the 1823 centre in Hong Kong and studying how to improve it to better serve the residents,” she said.

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