'Digital 21' IT Strategy

The Government is committed to keeping Hong Kong at the forefront of information technology (IT) development. In May 2001, the Government promulgated the updated 'Digital 21' IT Strategy, which is an overall blueprint for driving IT development in Hong Kong. The objective is to position Hong Kong as a leading e-business community and digital city in the globally connected world. The theme of the strategy is 'Hong Kong: Connecting the World'. There are structured targets and implementation timetables for developing initiatives in five key result areas, namely, driving e-business, developing E-government, fostering IT manpower, building a digitally inclusive society, and exploiting enabling technologies.

Driving E-business

The Government is committed to providing the necessary infrastructure for e-business to prosper. It has liberalised the telecommunications market, enacted the Electronic Transactions Ordinance to provide a clear legal framework for e-business and established a local Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for the conduct of secure electronic transactions. There are now one public and three private certification authorities recognised under the ordinance, which issue digital certificates for use by the community to conduct electronic transactions in a secure manner. The Government has completed a review of the ordinance and will shortly introduce amendments to keep it up-to-date with technological advancements and international e-business development.

    The Government also organises various promotional activities to encourage the business sector, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to adopt e-business, and works with industry support organisations to provide support services to assist SMEs in adopting e-business.

    To facilitate the development of e-business with Chinese communities outside Hong Kong, in particular the people in the Mainland, a simplified Chinese character version of government websites has been developed to enhance the accessibility of these communities to the websites. By a click of a button, people will be able to access a website in either a traditional or a simplified character version.

E-government

The Government is leading by example in the use of e-business, both to improve efficiency in conducting internal operations and to deliver one-stop, user-friendly and customer-centric public services to the business sector and the community. To gear up towards this vision, the E-government Coordination Office (EGCO) of the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau is driving forward E-government policies and joined-up government initiatives.

    The overall target in E-government is to provide an electronic option (e-option) for 90 per cent of the public services amenable to the electronic mode of delivery by the end of 2003. As of December 2002, 81 per cent of such services have been provided with e-options, up from some 70 per cent a year earlier. The Government is also working towards the target of conducting 80 per cent of the Government's procurement tenders through electronic means by end-2003. Some of the government-wide or cross-departmental E-government projects being coordinated by the EGCO are as follows:—

    In 2001–02, the Government spent $1.013 billion on some 550 computerisation projects. It has put in place a mechanism for fully exploiting business process re-engineering opportunities both within and across bureaux and departments when implementing IT projects. This is to ensure that the benefits of using IT are fully reaped in improving operational efficiency and quality of service, and cross-departmental collaboration in joining up the Government is stimulated so as to better achieve the E-government vision.

IT Manpower

To drive Hong Kong's transformation into an information economy, it is important to build up a competent IT workforce. The Government is committed to providing adequate and quality IT manpower to meet the demand in the community.

    The Government has implemented measures recommended by the Task Force on IT Manpower, which was set up under the Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee, to groom local IT talent in Hong Kong. If there is a gap or shortage in specific areas, IT talent elsewhere can be recruited to meet the requirement. New initiatives implemented during the year include sponsoring local universities to organise IT-related exchange programmes with overseas tertiary institutions, providing internship opportunities for IT students in multinational IT companies, and collaborating with the IT industry and the academic sectors in launching a Secondary Schools IT Training Scheme to provide practical IT training to secondary students as extra-curricular activities.

    The Government will continue to work with tertiary institutions and related bodies on other longer term measures to provide sufficient and quality IT manpower in Hong Kong.

Building a Digitally Inclusive Society

The Government encourages the people to embrace and use IT so as to enhance their quality of life. The main target groups are those people who have less opportunity to access IT facilities in their daily lives, such as elders, housewives, new arrivals and people with disabilities.

    The Government will continue to implement the 'IT Hong Kong' campaign, which was first launched in September 2000, to promote wider adoption and raise public awareness of IT in the community. This comprehensive campaign consists of district IT promotion activities, free IT awareness courses providing basic training to different sectors of the community, and a dedicated website and 'infotainment' TV programmes to disseminate information on the Government's IT initiatives and latest developments in IT. Moreover, a free public enquiry service called 'IT Easy Link' was launched in June 2002 to deal with enquiries from members of the public on the use of basic applications so as to encourage them and raise their confidence in using IT. The service has been well received by the public with about 400 calls received daily, on average.

    To ensure that the community has access to computer facilities and the Internet, the Government has provided over 5 000 public computers with Internet connections at convenient locations such as community centres/halls, public libraries, district offices and post offices for people's free use. Some of these computers are equipped with facilities such as screens with an enlargement device, Braille machines, and software for conversion of text to voice to allow access for the blind and the visually impaired. Apart from the Super Cyber Centre in Yau Ma Tei providing computer and other related facilities for free use by the public, the first District Cyber Centre was opened in December 2002 in Tin Shui Wai, providing citizens in the north-western New Territories free access to computer facilities and a venue for providing basic IT training. In addition, a government-wide programme was launched during the year to donate surplus serviceable computers to the needy. All government websites are now in compliance with universal accessibility guidelines so as to facilitate access and navigation by people with visual disabilities. The Government also encourages non-governmental organisations and the private sector to adopt these guidelines in designing their websites.

Exploiting Enabling Technologies

Hong Kong has long been recognised internationally for achievements in commercialising new technology applications. The Government will continue to leverage the strengths in the exploitation of advanced enabling technologies. To ensure Hong Kong's active participation in the development of the next generation of Internet technologies, the Government has assisted local universities in setting up a high-speed link to the Internet2 Consortium in North America in 2002. Four licences have been issued for third generation (3G) mobile services, and 3G services are expected to roll out in 2003. Mobile digital certificates are also issued to support the conduct of secure mobile commerce.

IT Cooperation

During the year, Hong Kong concluded cooperative arrangements on information and communications technology with Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Ireland respectively, bringing the number of cooperative partners in the field of information and communications technology to 12. The other countries that have reached similar agreements on cooperative arrangements with Hong Kong are Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Finland, India, Israel and the Republic of Korea. The Government has been working closely with these partners under the aegis of such cooperative arrangements to promote and support inter-governmental exchanges, business partnerships, investment cooperation and joint research and development in the areas of IT and telecommunications. It will continue to explore the opportunities of fostering further cooperation in the field of information and communications technology with these partners.

Cyberport

In March 1999, the Financial Secretary announced the Government's intention to proceed with the development of the Cyberport at Telegraph Bay, in the Southern District of Hong Kong Island. The purpose is to provide an infrastructure for creating a strategic cluster of quality IT and IT-related companies. The Government is developing the project in cooperation with a private sector company so as to benefit from the expertise and entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector. The Cyberport is scheduled for completion in phases between mid-2002 and late 2004.

    The Cyberport is a comprehensive development. The professional community will enjoy intelligent offices, enormous bandwidth, a wide range of shared IT facilities, a shopping arcade providing retail and entertainment facilities and a five-star hotel managed by the Le Meridien group, all set in a low density, campus-like environment. In addition, residential units — apartments and houses — will be developed between 2004 and 2007 to provide an intelligent home environment for professionals who choose to live near to their offices.

    The project is progressing well. Upon full completion, it will provide altogether more than a million square feet of Grade A office space to accommodate over 100 companies of different sizes and at different stages of development. These are like-minded companies specialising in IT applications, information services and multimedia content creation. Applications for Cyberport office tenancy have been received from multinational, overseas and local companies. Tenants are admitted based on the advice of a committee comprising local, international and industry members. Companies such as GE Information Services, Microsoft, ESRI, Sonera SmarTrust, PCCW, CSL and Sybase have signed up for leases with the Cyberport. Over 90 per cent of the office space in the first completed Phase I building has been leased out.

    The Cyberport companies will bring with them like-minded professionals. They will apply, use, experiment, create and develop applications, services and contents and push back frontiers in their fields. This is also a place for grooming professional talent. The University of Hong Kong, together with five leading IT companies (Cisco, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle), will run a Cyberport Institute in the Cyberport from September 2003 to provide market-driven programmes to nurture talent for Hong Kong.

    The Cyberport is set to contribute to the industrial and technological development in Hong Kong: a Digital Media Centre and a Wireless Solutions Development Centre will be set up in the Cyberport before the end of 2003 to provide the much needed hardware, software and technical support for the digital media companies and wireless industries in Hong Kong.