Team pact: Zheng Zhemin and Rosanna Ure sign the second agreement with Hangzhou on the exchange of civil servants, with Sheng Jifang and Denise Yue looking on.

Hong Kong and Hangzhou have signed a second agreement for the exchange of civil servants between the two places.

Under the two-year pact, three to five officers from each side will be attached to their counterpart government for four to eight weeks annually from this year.

Secretary for the Civil Service Denise Yue and Hangzhou Vice-mayor Sheng Jifang today attended a ceremony, at which, Deputy Secretary for the Civil Service Rosanna Ure and Hangzhou Municipal Government's Hong Kong & Macau Affairs Office Director Zheng Zhemin signed the document.

Thirty-one departments and related organisations of the two places have joined the programme under the first staff exchange agreement signed in early 2004. Between 2004 and 2006 there were 22 middle or senior ranking officers completing their attachments.

The scope of exchange was very extensive, including construction, city planning and environmental protection, transportation, labour protection, industry and commerce, education, public health, civil service management, treasury and audit, drug safety and social welfare.