HK set to sustain competitiveness in information age

September 25, 1998

The Government is committed to promoting Hong Kong's information infrastructure and services to make it a leader in the information world, Mr K C Kwong, Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, said in Toronto yesterday (Thursday).

Addressing a luncheon hosted jointly by the Hong Kong Canada Business Association, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, and the Toronto Board of Trade, Mr Kwong maintained that "a leadership position will help Hong Kong achieve competitive advantage leading to greater economic and social success regionally and internationally".

To illustrate Hong Kong's position on IT development, Mr Kwong told the gathering that spending on IT in Hong Kong last year amounted to US$2.4 billion; 90 per cent of the firms in the service sectors are using Office Automation software; 50 per cent of these firms have networked systems; the home penetration rate of PC stands at 34 per cent; and there are more than 570,000 Internet accounts.

"In order to further encourage the development of electronic business, we aim to introduce legislation to facilitate the implementation of electronic commerce, set up Certification Authorities and establish a common Chinese language interface.

"We are also determined to make Hong Kong an Internet hub in the Asia Pacific Region and co-operate with mainland China and other places on IT-related matters," he said.

In addition, the Government is committed to promoting the development of the IT industry through the vigorous outsourcing of Government IT projects, providing support to industry by setting up the Industrial Support Fund and Applied Research Fund, facilitating the technology collaboration between business and academia, and launching an Electronic Service Delivery scheme whereby the public would be able to transact business with the Government on-line 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through a wide range of electronic communication devices.

Noting the importance of providing Chinese language support for the development of applications and content on the Internet, Mr Kwong said, "Within the Government, we have adopted a common Chinese character set to facilitate data exchange between government departments and the public."

"We are also working closely with other governments and institutions under the aegis of the International Standards Organizations in the development of the ISO 10646 standard, which is an international coding standard aimed at encompassing characters of the Chinese and related Asian languages into one single common character set," he said.

Attending an IT seminar in the afternoon, Mr Kwong noted that Hong Kong and Canada were entering a new era of IT partnership.

In May this year, Hong Kong and Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two places aimed at fostering and promoting cooperation and exchange on information and communications technology.

Mr Kwong said the MOU focused on areas of mutual interest for co-operation, such as multimedia and software applications and products, electronic commerce infrastructure and policy, broadband networks and applications, and Internet applications.

"The signing of the MOU will enable Hong Kong to benefit from the experience and expertise of Canada. This will in turn help us maintain our lead in IT and foster the growth of the local IT industry," Mr Kwong added.

Under the MOU, Mr Kwong is leading a Hong Kong IT delegation to Canada to attend Softworld 98 at St. John's on September 21-23 and the Hong Kong IT Seminar and Software Showcase in Toronto on September 24-25.

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