Chief Executive Donald Tsang has demonstrated a pragmatic and down-to-earth leadership style in the past 15 months paving the way for the SAR's progress, Chief Secretary for Administration Rafael Hui told lawmakers yesterday.

Hui was speaking on the three-day debate in the Legislative Council on whether there should be a Motion of Thanks for the 2006-07 Policy Address the chief executive delivered early this month.

The chief secretary for administration cited achievements including, among other things, the setting up of a food safety mechanism, the notification system on infectious disease with the mainland, the clean-air campaign, the review of the powers and roles of the District Councils and the next stage of work on the fair competition policy.

Countering claims that the policy address was "pragmatic enough but lacking ambition", Hui said that it would have been unusual for Tsang to put forth grand plans in his remaining eight months as the chief executive.

Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam told the council that it was the government's strategy to first draw up a roadmap ahead of a timetable for universal suffrage.

In particular, society needs to fully debate on the destiny of the functional constituency seats to achieve broad consensus on the pattern of universal suffrage, he said.

On furthering the political development system, Lam said it would broaden the channel for people entering politics, citing examples in Canada and the UK that there are several levels of political appointments to handle legislative and political issues.

Denise Yue, Secretary for the Civil Service, said the government would strive to maintain a permanent, politically neutral, professional, clean, and meritocractic civil service.

Regardless of change of leadership, civil servants will continue to work as usual and serve the next Chief Executive faithfully even though his/her views and ideals may differ from that of his/her predecessor.

Ma Lik, chairman of Democratic Alliance for Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said the policy address dwelt on the areas of pre-education, environment and family harmony.

His party colleague Lau Kong-wah expressed concern for the collocation system to be used at the new Shenzhen Western Corridor after the National People's Congress Standing Committee had raised doubt on the operation of Hong Kong and mainland laws at the boundary.

Liberal Party Chairman James Tien said the policy address was on the whole a pragmatic one. He appreciated Tsang's difficulty, given that he had to stay away from the suspicion that he was using the policy address as his re-election policy platform.

Legislators also expressed their views on issues like minimum wage, GST, and the "zero fee" travel tours from the mainland.