Promoting the use of IT across the community

November 26, 1998

The Government has pledged to promote the wider use of Information Technology (IT) in the community and create an environment which encourages creativity and innovation, the Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, Mr K C Kwong, said today (Thursday).

Speaking at the Annual Dinner of the Hong Kong Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology, Mr Kwong stressed that the Government need to stimulate the use of technology across the whole community, adding that the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau had proposed initiatives towards achieving this in the recently published IT Strategy for Hong Kong.

He cited some of the initiatives, including :

• to implement pilot projects to encourage small and medium sized companies to widely use IT and conduct electronic transactions;
  
  
• to establish public recognition and award mechanisms to promote the application of new technologies across the private sector; and
  
  
• to continue the efforts in facilitating the commercialisation of research results of our tertiary institutions in leading edge technologies.

Mr Kwong noted that the efforts in promoting scientific and technological advancement were extremely important, especially in a world where advanced and innovative technologies were the primary drivers of economic growth.

He said,"In the knowledge-based world of the 21st century, the competitiveness of an economy will be determined by its ability to develop and exploit technology."

He, however, pointed out that people often had a misconception that technology development and advances were the prerogatives of the so-called "high tech" industries.

"This is not true," he said. "What matters is not whether your industry is "high tech" or "low tech", but how effective you are in exploiting the technology to improve your productivity, to innovate in your products and services, and to open up new market niches."

Thus, even so called "traditional" industries such as textiles, consumer electronics and plastics and "traditional" services such as banking, insurance and retail sales, can all benefit from the adoption of new and innovative technologies, he added.

The Secretary told the gathering that Government was committed to promoting technological development.

He said,"We have developed a number of support programmes and facilities over the years to encourage Research and Development (R&D) activities and the adoption of new technologies.

These include the Industrial Support Fund which finances projects beneficial to the industrial and technology development of Hong Kong and; the Applied Research Fund which provides seed capital for technology ventures. Also, and the Government is proceeding with the development of the Science Park, which will provide a focal point for research and development of technology businesses.

In addition, the Chief Executive has accepted a key recommendation from the Commission on Innovation and Technology, which is to establish an Applied Science and Technology Institute to conduct mid-stream R&D activities, with focuses on development and adaptation of generic and pro-competitive technologies for transfer to industry.

The Chief Executive has also accepted another recommendation of the Commission to set up a $5 billion Innovation and Technology Fund to finance individual projects that contribute to innovation or technology upgrading in our manufacturing and service industries.

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