More co-operative ventures between HK and Canada in IT

November 4, 1998

The Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, Mr K C Kwong, today (Wednesday) called for closer business relationship in the Information Technology (IT) field between Hong Kong and Canada.

He said that following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on co-operation in information and communications technology in May this year, Hong Kong "will organise even more co-operative ventures that will involve not just the two Governments, but also the IT industry, businesses and professionals as well as academics in our two places".

Addressing a breakfast gathering of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation Ltd., Mr Kwong outlined five specific areas in IT which he believed would provide business opportunities for Canadian companies.

These include the outsourcing of Government IT projects, applications and services relating to electronic commerce, IT in education, rectification of the Year 2000 problem, and development of services and content on the Internet.

On Government IT projects, Mr Kwong noted that Government spending on IT was expected to reach $2.1 billion in 1998-99, an increase of 11 per cent over the preceding year. And starting from 1999-2000, all new IT development and maintenance projects will be outsourced unless there are over-riding reasons for retaining the work in-house.

"Our aim is to outsource some two-thirds of all new IT projects in Government by 2001-02," he said, adding that this should create a market of sufficient size to stimulate the development of and investment in the local IT industry.

Turning to electronic commerce, Mr Kwong said the Government had embarked on an Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) project for the delivery of government services on-line. He said that in response to Government's invitation to express interest on the provision of ESD, 44 submissions, including six from Canadian companies, were received.

Tenders for the ESD will be invited by the end of this year and the first phase of the project is expected to be implemented in 2000.

As regards the use of IT in education, the Secretary said the Government's initial target was to have 25 per cent of the school curriculum taught through IT in five years' time so as to help Hong Kong students get the most out of their school education.

"This will involve not only the provision of hardware facilities, but also the development of educational software which meets the needs of local students," he said.

The Year 2000 problems would also generate business opportunities. According to a survey conducted in September this year by the Hong Kong Productivity Council, over 98 per cent of the companies surveyed were aware of the Year 2000 problems. About 57 per cent of the companies with IT systems indicated that they would be affected by the problem and of these, two-thirds were taking action to tackle it before the new millennium arrived.

"To IT practitioners, this is probably the largest ever maintenance project they would see in the IT history," Mr Kwong said. "The heightened awareness of the Year 2000 problem in Hong Kong means more business opportunities for IT companies, including Canadian ones, to provide consultancy services and compliance solutions to the local companies."

Finally on the development of the Internet, Mr Kwong told the gathering that there was growing demand for Chinese content not only in the Mainland of China, but also in other Chinese speaking communities all over the world.

He believed that Hong Kong, as a bilingual city, was well placed to provide Chinese language support for the development of Chinese Internet content and related applications.

"Coupled with our excellent telecommunications infrastructure and our unique position vis-a-vis the Mainland of China, Hong Kong can be developed into an Internet traffic and content hub of the region," Mr Kwong added.

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