Speech by Mr K C Kwong, Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting at Seminar on Finnish IT and Software Solutions

17 September, 1999

Mr Consul General, ladies and gentlemen,

I am honoured to welcome you to the "Seminar on Finnish IT and Software Solutions" today. It is indeed encouraging to see so many Finnish companies participating in today's seminar to share your views and experience with us on a wide range of information technology (IT) application products and solutions. I am confident that the seminar will provide the audience with a better understanding of the capabilities of Finnish IT companies, and conversely a better appreciation of Hong Kong's customer needs in these areas by the companies involved. This will be mutually beneficial to the development of business relations between Finland and Hong Kong.

Notwithstanding the geographic distance between us and the difference in culture, Hong Kong and Finland have common IT aspirations. We both strive to become the hub of IT development in our respective regions, and we are both in the forefront of making innovative use of information and communications technologies. During my recent visit to Finland earlier this month, I had the pleasure to meet with Mr Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Minister of Transport and Communications and we exchanged views on Government's role in promoting the development of our IT industries. I also took the opportunity to visit a number of IT and telecommunications companies and academic and research institutions there. I was impressed by the advances made in Finland in telecommunications and IT applications, and the use of these in building up Helsinki as a digital city.

We too are working hard to build up Hong Kong as a leading digital city in the globally connected world. This is the goal we set for ourselves in our "Digital 21" IT Strategy. The Strategy sets out the various initiatives for achieving that goal.

I do not intend to go through in detail each of these initiatives today, but I think you may be interested in some of the key ones.

First we are creating our environment which further encourages the development of high capacity telecommunications infrastructure. This is a prerequisite for us to fully exploit the business opportunities in the Information Age. Judging by world standards, Hong Kong is already in a leading position. For example, our broadband network covers practically all business buildings as well as 75% of all households. The latter percentage is expected to grow to 80% by the end of this year. Despite our relatively small size, we have 4 local fixed telecommunications network operators and we expect to license a fifth one shortly, based on the local cable TV network. We have 133 Internet Service Providers, serving about 1 million local Internet users. As for mobile telecommunications, we have 6 mobile telecommunications licensees operating eleven networks on the basis of 4 digital standards. Though somewhat behind Finland, we have the highest penetration rate of mobile telephones in Asia, at 49 phones per 100 inhabitants. But we are not complacent, we have decided to introduce even more competition in the markets through liberalisation of the telecommunications markets. We are confident that substantial additional capacity will be built as a result so that we can adequately meet the experientially growing demand for bandwidth at reasonable prices.

Second, through the Hongkong Post, we are establishing a public key infrastructure (PKI) to enable secure transactions over the Internet. The Hongkong Post will be providing the key and certification services in by the end of this year.

Third, the HKSAR Government is taking the lead in electronic business by providing public services on-line under our Electronic Service Delivery Scheme. Through ESD, we will not only improve the quality of our services, but also help to create an environment and a climate conducive to the development and take-up of electronic commerce.

Fourth, we are establishing proper legal framework to provide certainty for electronic transactions.

With all these initiatives, we shall see the wider adoption of e-Commerce in Hong Kong. We shall all see a substantial growth in demand for high quality IT and software solutions to support all these developments. We look to the world IT market both as a source of supply as well as a source of partnership in this exciting endeavour of ours. With the proven capabilities of Finland in a good number of areas of IT and communications, I am confident that you will find excellent and rewarding opportunities for doing business, either by yourselves or in partnership, in Hong Kong. And of course, you should also consider using Hong Kong as a bridge to the enormous market in the Mainland of China.

I wish you every success with the seminar.

Thank you.

- END -