Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung today visited the Census & Statistics Department (C&SD) to exchange views with staff representatives and learn more about how it applies artificial intelligence (AI) and data science in statistical work to enhance operational efficiency and service quality.
Accompanied by Permanent Secretary for the Civil Service Clement Leung, Mrs Yeung met Commissioner for Census & Statistics Leo Yu and directorate staff for an update on the department’s latest developments and key initiatives.
Starting from the 2026 Population Census, the C&SD will make more extensive and systematic use of the administrative data collected from various departments, including immigration records, public housing rentals and welfare payments to reduce the cost of data collection.
It is estimated that the total cost incurred for the 2026 and 2031 population censuses will be reduced by about 40%, saving around $680 million.
Mrs Yeung was then briefed on the department’s data science development strategy, which involves exploring and applying cutting-edge technologies such as image recognition, web scraping and computer vision technology for intelligent data collection and processing.
Staff also introduced to her two sets of in-house developed AI models, one of which can accurately validate the classification and the unit value of commodities on import/export declarations within a short period of time, thereby enhancing the quality and efficiency of the data validation process.
The other set of AI models is applied to the Electronic System for Cargo Manifests to assist in matching the corresponding import/export declarations and cargo manifests.
The use of the two sets of AI models has reduced the department’s required manpower by nearly half. Some of the saved resources will be reallocated to further drive the development of data science and the statistical areas involving big data, with a view to enabling the department to provide higher-quality statistical services to the community.
Mrs Yeung said: “As the expectations and demands of the community on the Government and the civil service have continuously grown, the workload of the Government has been increasing while all departments have to reduce expenditure and streamline manpower at the same time.
“Innovative thinking and flexibility are key to keeping up with the complicated and ever-changing environment.”
On the premise of maintaining efficient public services, Mrs Yeung requested the government departments to make good plans and review the necessity of all their posts, leverage technology, and optimise manpower arrangements through reorganisation and reprioritisation of work.
The civil service chief encouraged the C&SD to continue applying innovative technology to further enhance the timeliness and accuracy of official statistics while streamlining the workflow to meet the demand for statistical information from the Government, the industrial and business sectors and the public.
Concluding her visit, Mrs Yeung met staff representatives from various grades to exchange views on matters of concern.
With the 2025 Voter Registration Campaign under way, she reminded colleagues to actively register as electors and cast their votes in the 2025 Legislative Council General Election at the end of this year.
