The Hong Kong government plans to cut approximately 6,000 civil service jobs by the end of the 2004-05 fiscal year.

To achieve this target, the government will encourage civil servants to retire early or to further their studies.

"We think we can trim the civil service size from about 173,000 to 167,000 by the end of March 2005 through voluntary retirement and natural attrition," Hong Kong's Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong said Tuesday at a spring gathering with the media.

The ultimate goal is to reduce the civil serivce size to 160,000 by 2006-07, he added.

In October 2003, Wong asked heads of bureaus and departments to submit manpower forecasts to ascertain if there are any manpower surpluses or mismatching.

The first round of forecasts has been returned. After analyzing the data, Wong felt that drastic action is not necessary.

"Since there is still a dispute with the financial secretary over the financial arrangements in 2006 and after, I will explore with him what job grades and job ranks will be involved and when the headcount exercises are to be launched," he said.

As part of measures to tackle the manpower surplus, 50 clerical staff members from various departments have arranged to assist in the Legislative Council election for six to nine months.

This will eliminate the need to employ temporary staff, Wong said.

Leung Chau-ting, chairman of Hong Kong Federation of Civil Service Unions, said not many staff would like to retire early if the conditions were not attractive enough.

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