HONG KONG -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government Wednesday awarded HKSAR rescue team and an interdepartmental preparation team for Kai Tak Sports Park Commissioning the Chief Executive's Award for Exemplary Performance.

Speaking at a ceremony, HKSAR Chief Executive John Lee said that the two awarded outstanding teams have demonstrated their respective strengths, which not only set an example for the entire civil service, but also demonstrated the HKSAR government's spirit of pursuing excellence and fearlessly taking on challenges. They created good stories of civil servants that we are proud of through their actions.

In March this year, a severe earthquake struck Myanmar. The HKSAR government quickly formed an interdepartmental search and rescue team, comprising civil servants from the Security Bureau, the Fire Services Department and the Immigration Department, together with medical representatives from the Hospital Authority.

The team overcame tremendous challenges, conducted joint operations with the national search and rescue team and successfully rescued one survivor who had been trapped for more than 125 hours.

The Inter-departmental Preparation Team for Kai Tak Sports Park Commissioning was formed by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, the Security Bureau, the Civil Service Bureau, the Transport and Logistics Bureau, the Hong Kong Police Force and the Transport Department to ensure the smooth operation of the park upon its commissioning.

The Kai Tak Sports Park is the largest sports infrastructure project ever commissioned in Hong Kong. In the face of multiple challenges such as the pressing schedule, the large scale of the project and complicated coordination work, the preparation team, with its innovative thinking, meticulous planning and interdepartmental collaborations, completed around 20 test events in just five months to evaluate the capability of the park and its surrounding facilities. The park was officially opened on March 1.

The award was launched in 2022 to give recognition to meritorious and exemplary teams or individuals in the civil service, with a view to encouraging civil servants to continuously strive for excellence.