The policy address is the most important official speech delivered by the Chief Executive. Its translation plays a significant role in the communicative process between the Government and non-Chinese speaking communities. However, the issues about how it is translated and what factors may influence the translator’s decision making are rarely discussed so far. The purpose of this research is to analyze, from the functionalist perspective, the English translation of this kind of multifunctional text, on the basis of Reiss and Nord’s text typology and text functions. Newmark’s dichotomy of semantic and communicative translation is taken as the theoretical basis for the analysis of translation strategies. Features relevant to the attainment of different communicative functions are selected for a qualitative analysis. The findings mainly show that semantic translation is predominantly employed while translating the policy address. The study also indicates that the translation is conducted in line with the source text function, pursuing its functional invariance in the target text. Inaccuracies and ambiguities are occasionally found. Some implications of the findings are also discussed, including the role of text type, the predominance of semantic translation, the target readers’ expectations and the role of translator. Keywords: Policy address; text type; text functions; translation strategies; semantic translation; communicative translation