| The Honourable John Tsang 曾俊華 GBM JP |
|
|---|---|
| John Tsang at VinExpo 2010 | |
| Financial Secretary | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 1 July 2007 |
|
| Chief Executive | Sir Donald Tsang |
| Political Assistant | Frankie Yip (2008-) |
| Preceded by | Henry Tang |
| Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology | |
| In office 4 August 2003 – 24 January 2006 |
|
| Preceded by | Henry Tang |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Wong |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 April 1951 Hong Kong |
John Tsang Chun-wah (traditional Chinese: 曾俊華; simplified Chinese: 曾俊华; pinyin: Zēng Jùnhuá; born 1951), GBM, JP, is the current Financial Secretary (FS) of Hong Kong. His responsibility is to assist the Chief Executive of Hong Kong in overseeing policy formulation and implementation in financial, monetary, economic, trade and employment matters. He exercises control over the Exchange Fund, with the assistance of the Monetary Authority. He is a member of the Executive Council.[1] In an annual budget speech, he outlines the move to any Appropriation Bill.
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As a teenager he spent his secondary school years in La Salle College in Hong Kong and Stuyvesant High School in New York City.[2] He graduated from the highschool in 1969.[3]
After graduating from high school, he studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[2] He also holds a master degree in bilingual education from Boston State College and a MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[2]
Through his teens and twenties, Tsang lived in the United States. In November 1982 he returned to Hong Kong and joined the civil service, serving as Assistant District Officer for Shatin for two years.[4] He went on to positions in the former Finance Branch, Monetary Affairs Branch and the former Trade Department. From 1987 to 1992, he was first Administrative Assistant to then Financial Secretary, Sir Piers Jacobs.[3]
He was Assistant Director-General of Trade from 1992 to 1995 and Private Secretary to the former Governor, Chris Patten, from March 1995 to June 1997.[3] In July 1997, Tsang was appointed Director-General of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London. In 1999 he returned from London and assumed the office of Commissioner of Customs and Excise.[3] Before the Principal Officials Accountability System was introduced in July 2002, Tsang was Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands from 2001 to 2002.[5]
From August 2003 Tsang was Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology.[5] In this role he was also Chair of the Sixth Ministerial Conference (MC6) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) held in Hong Kong from 13 to 18 December 2005.[6] For his outstanding performance in the WTO, he even earned praise from Chinese president Hu Jintao.[6]
Tsang then became the director of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong's Office from 2006 to June 2007. He even had to take a salary cut from HK$3.74 million down to $2.16 million.[6] He agreed to the salary cut because he has been a friend of Donald Tsang since the 1980s.[6] In 2007 Tsang became the Financial Secretary of HK.[2]
Tsang was admitted to Queen Mary Hospital on 27 September 2009 after returning from the 2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit. He had a coronary artery blockage and went through an angioplasty operation. He recovered and discharged from hospital on 3 October 2009.[7][8] He told the media the operation will not affect his work.[9]
In 1998 and 1999 Donald Tsang representing the HK government met with Richard Li, chairman of Pacific Century Group regarding the Cyberport construction project.[10] On 2 March 1999 both signed a document that said PCG will occupy 20-50% of the total office space within the first 5 years of cyberport. Under a "take-up guarantee", PCG was required to pay the 50% rent if not enough tenants showed up. But in exchange PCG would be allowed to occupy as much as 50% of a government owned IT infrastructure.[10][11]
In 2000 the take-up was suddenly dropped by the government.[10] (Cyberport struggled to attract tenants, was becoming unpopular with Dot-com bubble problem) Democratic Party member Lee Wing-tat demanded that records of meetings between Donald Tsang and Richard Li should be revealed to show PCG was not colluded with the government. John Tsang strongly defended Donald Tsang to not reveal anything.[10][11]
On 23 February 2011 John Tsang delivered the annual "2011-2012 HK Budget summary".[12] The HK government was under pressure to give some of the money back to the community. After trying to move the surplus into a Mandatory Provident Fund, citizens began complaining. About 10,000 protesters showed up at Central to demonstrate. The mismanagement of the funds opened a number of controversies.[13]
In January 2011 HK government's IT chief information officer Jeremy Godfrey stepped down from his job for "personal reason". On 10, May 2011 in a letter to the Legislative council, he said those personal reasons were not real. That the real reason why he quit was related to Elizabeth Tse (謝曼怡) and John Tsang.[14] It turns out there were arguments over the implementation of the Internet Learning Support Program (ILSP). It was revealed that Tse and Tsang forced the HK$220 million contract to be awarded to a company called iProA. The company turned out to be founded by Elizabeth Quat, a member of the pro-Beijing DAB.[15] Tsang responded that the accusations are ridiculous and absurd.[15] Godfrey have since come out to state that Quat herself has nothing to do with the ILSP controversy.[16] But said the IT decision was politicised.[15]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Gordon Siu |
Secretary for Planning and Lands 2001–2002 |
Succeeded by Michael Suen as Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands |
| Preceded by Henry Tang |
Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology 2004 – 2006 |
Succeeded by Joseph Wong |
| Financial Secretary of Hong Kong 2007 – present |
Incumbent | |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by Lam Woon-kwong |
Director of the Chief Executive's Office 2006 – 2007 |
Succeeded by Norman Chan |
| Civic offices | ||
| Preceded by Li Shu-fai |
Commissioner of Customs and Excise 1999 – 2001 |
Succeeded by Raymond Wong |
| Order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by Henry Tang Chief Secretary for Administration |
Hong Kong order of precedence Financial Secretary of Hong Kong |
Succeeded by Wong Yan Lung Secretary for Justice |
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