The certificate has been framed and is now being displayed at the 3rd floor main entrance of Arsenal House. The certificate will also be shown at Police Officers' Club and Police Sports and Recreation Club to members of the Force after which it will be included as one of the Force collection items. Building on the success of the Olympic and Paralympic Equestrian Events, the Force will continue to give its all-out efforts to ensure the safe and smooth running of the 2009 East Asian Games (EAG) in Hong Kong.

To have a better appreciation of the challenge ahead and to keep abreast of the developments made by Regions, Director of Operations Koo Sii-hong visited the EAG competition venues in Kowloon East Region and Hong Kong Island Region on April 2 and 24 respectively.

He took the opportunity to thank the Regional and District representatives for providing valuable inputs to Leisure and Cultural Services Department in terms of security features incorporated at the venues. In addition, he further showed his appreciation that the Regions had made good progress on operational planning and preparation.

As regard planning at Regional level, all Regions, except New Territories North Region which has no EAG competition venue, have formed their Regional Working Groups in order to ensure adequate coordination among Districts as well as to achieve consistency and compliance with policies and protocols set down by both the Force Steering Committee and Force Planning Committee.

At Headquarters level, the EAG Special Duty Team was officially set up on April 1, consisting of one Superintendent, one Chief Inspector, one Senior Inspector and one Sergeant. With only eight months ahead, the Team has already been fully engaged in intensive liaison and coordination with both external stakeholders and formations as well as other related planning and preparation work.

Prior to the official establishment of the Team, Police Tactical Unit Commandant Wong Chi-hung, who is also the Chairman of the Force Planning Committee for the 2009 EAG, and members of the impending Team started the first wave of briefing sessions at Regional Headquarters in March, meeting Regional and District representatives who are directly involved in the EAG. At the briefing sessions, Mr Wong and the Team updated frontline Commanders on the latest development of planning while the audiences made good use of the opportunities for professional exchange. The sessions were well received, and the Regions considered them extremely useful as they have enhanced mutual communication. Also, the Team has been attending all Regional Working Group Meetings in order to enhance effective internal communication and to ensure consistent policing strategy amongst all.

To effectively disseminate EAG related information for Force members to gain an adequate overview of the operation, a Web Corner for 2009 EAG was launched at POINT on April 1. Officers are now given access to various non-confidential information concerning policing of the EAG such as the planning structure, extracts of minutes of meetings, Lines-To-Take and useful links. The information in the Web Corner will continue to build up and Force members are welcomed to make suggestions in relation to preparation of the Games. The suggestions will be forwarded to the respective formations for follow-up actions.

Mr Koo being briefed at an EAG venue in Siu Sai Wan