Incumbent Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen breezed through local elections to soundly defeat rival Alan Leong on March 25, and move into his second term as the special administrative region's top official.

Poll results revealed that 649 of the 772 valid ballots of the Hong Kong Election Committee were collected by Tsang, an overwhelming majority. His reappointment is expected to be officially approved by China's Central Government this April, after which his tenure will officially begin on July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2012.

The 63-year-old Tsang has been a civil servant in the Hong Kong local government for nearly four decades, and is renowned for his performance during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and later economic recovery during his tenure as the first Chinese financial secretary. It was after this that he was promoted to chief secretary for administration in 2001. When former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa resigned for health reasons in 2005, Tsang was sworn in as the acting chief executive and then successfully elected that June.

Born into an ordinary family, Tsang's career success is widely respected for his self-dependence and hard-work ethics. He was educated in Hong Kong and received his Master's degree in public administration at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China from British rule in 1997. Since then, regional prosperity has blossomed under the Central Government's policies of "one country, two systems" and "Hong Kong people administrating Hong Kong." A fully open mainland market and the endorsement of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) have offered Hong Kong more favorable trade conditions for further development. However, in recent years, it has been suffering from environmental problems caused by its dense population and heavy pollution, a lack of sustainable power to drive the economy, and a widening income gap between the rich and the poor.

Tsang, who has rich experience in administration and economic management, has vowed to enhance Hong Kong's economic development and democratic progress after his victory.