Plans to promote HK as a digital city in the 21st century

October 28, 1998

With the excellent telecommunications infrastructure, Hong Kong has the capability to develop into an Internet hub in the Asia Pacific Region.

This was stated by the Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, Mr K C Kwong, when addressing two public functions - the Asia Pacific Smart Card Forum and the Electronic-business Symposium - in Melbourne, Australia, today (Wednesday).

Mr Kwong said that in Hong Kong, the number of Internet accounts had been rising sharply in the last two years. "We now have 570,000 Internet accounts, or 11 Internet users per 100 population.

"We are also witnessing the emergence of some innovative use of the Internet for the delivery on-line in various sectors, such as financial services, trading community, container terminals, film and TV production," he added.

With the extensive reach of the Internet comes expanded opportunity for doing business across the globe. To this end, Mr Kwong said the SAR Government was actively planning for the introduction of on-line delivery of public services, known as Electronic Service Delivery (ESD).

The scheme will enable the community to transact business with Government on-line through the use of information kiosks installed in convenient public locations, personal computers at home or in the office, telephone through interactive voice response system or interactive television 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

To identify and remove any impediments which might hamper this mode of service delivery, Mr Kwong said the Government was planning to establish a local Certification Authority by the year 2000.

The Government will also establish a clear legal framework in order to provide certainty in the conduct of electronic transactions. This framework will cover issues such as legal recognition for data messages and electronic signatures, as well as the establishment of certification authorities.

He hoped to invite tender for the provision of ESD services by the end of this year, and to implement the first phase of ESD in 2000.

Mr Kwong also told the participants that to meet the commitments made by the SAR Chief Executive, the Government had developed a strategic objective to make Hong Kong a leading digital city in the globally connected world in the 21st century.

He cited statistics to show that Hong Kong provided excellent telecommunications infrastructure and services : the fixed telecommunications networks are 100 per cent digitised; 36 per cent of the households/businesses have kerbside connection to broadband networks, and this will double to about 70 per cent by mid-1999; 3.6 million exchange lines serving the entire population, or 108 exchange lines per 100 households; 37 per cent mobile telephone penetration rate which is one of the highest in the world; 34 per cent PC home penetration rate; and the world's first commercial-scale Video-on-Demand service which was launched in March this year.

Working towards the goal of promoting the development and wider use of new technologies in the community, the Government has decided to liberalise Hong Kong's external telecommunications services from January 1999 and proposed to liberalise Hong Kong's external telecommunications facilities from January 2000; liberalise the Television market to provide more choices to viewers; strengthen anti-competition safeguards in these markets to benefit consumers; optimise the use of telecommunications and cable TV networks; and construct a world-class teleport to provide the best possible global satellite communication links.

In addition, the Government will establish an Applied Science and Technology Research Institute to provide "mid-stream" research, which is pivotal in linking basic scientific research to its commercial applications; set up a $5 billion Innovation and Technology Fund to finance projects which will contribute to innovation and technological upgrading in the manufacturing and service industries; establish a $5 billion Quality Education Fund for grants to raise school standards through innovation; and facilitate technology collaboration between academic institutions and the business community.

But this is not all, said Mr Kwong. Hong Kong, as a Special Administrative Region of China, is uniquely well placed to develop business relations with the Mainland of China.

"Working with our Mainland counterparts, we will improve our mutual Internet links, making it easier for Hong Kong companies to integrate their manufacturing and supply operations on the Mainland.

"As a first step, we will set up inter-government electronic link between Guangdong Province and Hong Kong in 1999. We will also be able to act as a digital intermediary linking the Mainland with the rest of the world.

"I look forward to seeing similar breakthrough in the field of IT between Australia and Hong Kong, through more exchanges and closer co-operation between the two governments and the IT industry of the two places," Mr Kwong added.

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