Meeting the Media | Government spokesperson system to be ‘more standardized’

Government spokesperson and director of the Government Information Bureau, Victor Chan Chi Ping, said yesterday that the new government team “was striving to strengthen its dissemination of information and its co-ordination work, in order to make it more standardized, institutionalized and professional.”
He announced that meetings with the press would be held on a regular basis to enhance mutual communication and to listen to their opinions with the aim of optimizing the current system.
Speaking at a tea session to almost 60 media representatives from local outlets and overseas correspondents stationed in Macau, Mr Chan revealed details of the plan and reviewed the work of bureaus and the use of new media by government departments over the past year.
Victor Chan said that the government places great importance not only on communicating with traditional media outlets, but also on the development of new media, “to put into action the Chief Executive’s policy vision of increasing government transparency, enhancing the speed and quality of responses, and making better use of the new media”. He also noted that “every government department has put more effort into developing a multi-
media platform to better disseminate information and promote its policies.”
Currently, while all government departments have their own websites there are also specific sites.  Among these are those of the Wealth Partaking Scheme and life-long learning incentive scheme.
Chan explained that policy-
making secretaries have committed to launching these websites, “to collect people’s views and promote policies in various areas”.
Mr Chan also said that more than 20 departments had also launched mobile applications for portable devices, providing information on topics ranging from transportation and weather, to emergency services in hospitals. These are intended to provide more updates on the situation to help the public in choosing the services most relevant to their needs.