Speech by Mr K H Lau, Director of Information Technology Services at the Second ACM Hong Kong Postgraduate Research Day on 23 - 10 - 1999

Dr Kwok, Dr Yang, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Thank you for inviting me to speak today at the Second ACM Hong Kong Postgraduate Research Day. It is indeed encouraging to see so many postgraduate students from Hong Kong and Macau participating in this event to share their invaluable experiences learnt in their recent research on various aspects of computing and communications. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the Government's information technology (IT) strategy for the Hong Kong SAR and the progress we have made so far.

Our vision is to use technology, in particular information technology, to drive Hong Kong's economic growth. The "Digital 21" IT strategy, which you should have received a copy today, sets out the initiatives of how Government, academia, business and industry can work together to make Hong Kong a leading digital city in a globally connected world of the 21st century.

I would like to start with the IT manpower development initiative under Digital 21.

We aim to develop Hong Kong into an innovation and technology hub. To achieve that, it is of vital importance that we have the people who are equipped with the necessary skills. The Government is committed to promoting IT in education so that our young people can grow up with the knowledge, the skills and the vision to play an active part in the next century of information and technology.

Apart from providing all schools with basic facilities like IT and Internet access, school networks, and all teachers with training and support, we also fund individual schools through the Quality Education Fund to move faster in learning through IT.

The Quality Education Fund also funds projects like the "Hong Kong Cyber Campus" initiated by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. This project connects our primary and secondary schools to a school intranet system and provides free dial-up lines for teachers as well as free e-mail accounts for students. It has facilitated the sharing of educational resources and strengthened communication among schools, teachers and students.

Our recent IT promotion programmes for secondary schools include running seminars in individual schools to equip parents to guide their children through the myriad distractions in cyberspace. We are also adding IT related questions to the Inter-School Quiz Contest in order to raise secondary school students' interest in IT.

To equip our workforce with better IT skills, we would provide over $170 million to improve IT training in vocational education. We are upgrading the IT infrastructure of the technical colleges and institutes under the Vocational Training Council, which provide technical and craftsmen training on information systems, software engineering, etc.

For universities, we are funding training programmes and projects, an example of which is City University's Digital Technology Training Programme for Computer Animation and Digital Effects. We are providing a one-off funding of $14 million to upgrade and expand the equipment for this course to produce 750 professionally trained 3D computer animators in the next two and a half years. The funding support will help nurture a critical mass of professionally trained 3D computer animators to support the development of the local digital content development industry. The availability of a large number of trained IT professionals in the field will in turn attract more 3D animation orders to be placed in Hong Kong from around the world, and will contribute towards the development of Hong Kong into a major regional centre for multimedia-based information and entertainment services in a significant way.

To provide entrepreneurial training to university graduates in the IT field and to cultivate an environment conducive to technology transfer and company spin-offs in Hong Kong, the Government has sponsored a sum of $12.5 million for local universities to implement the IT Entrepreneurial Programme (ITEP). This offers an excellent opportunity for our talented budding engineers in the IT sector to develop into the next generation of IT entrepreneurs in Hong Kong.

IT Industry development is another key initiative of Digital 21. The government has an important role to play in creating the right environment for innovation and technology to develop and flourish. And this is what we are doing now. However, the ultimate success of our endeavours to facilitate, encourage and nurture our IT sectors and export home-grown technology will depend largely on private sector involvement and the determination and courage of young entrepreneurs to turn good ideas into popular, commercially viable products.

As a proactive promoter and facilitator for the development of innovation and technology, we have established the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) as a statutory fund with an injection of $5 billion . The Fund aims to increase the added value, productivity and competitiveness of our industries through financing projects that contribute to innovation and technology upgrading in both the manufacturing and service industries.

Other facilitation programmes include:

• the establishment of the Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) to bridge the gap between academics and entrepreneurs by conducting application-driven and market-oriented R&D work for transfer to industry;
• support for high-tech startups through the Hong Kong Industrial Technology Centre's Business Incubation Program and support facilities for R&D;
• the development of a Cyberport in partnership with the private sector to attract a strategic cluster of companies engaged in leading-edge information technology and services. We hope this will create the synergies required to turn Hong Kong into an international multi-media and information service centre; and
• relaxation of our immigration policy and recruitment of young talents or technology entrepreneurs from overseas and the Mainland to build up a critical mass of talented IT professionals in the shortest possible time.

University-industry collaboration is vital to the betterment of Hong Kong's IT industry. Connecting the right technology to the right people will generate the momentum of success. To this end, my department has organized a forum in June to bring the industrialists, the investment community, and the academic researchers together with a view to promoting the commercialization of IT research results.

I am glad to see that the academia is proactively facilitating the development of local IT industry as well as the deployment of IT in the community.

The Cyberspace Centre of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is helping local software companies and other industrial sectors to make more effective use of the Internet through seminars, publications, hotline services and consultancy work.

Equally exciting are the E-Business Technology Institute of HKU's new initiatives to draft a blueprint for supply chain management, building security systems for electronic transactions, developing a standard Web platform for small and medium enterprises and initiating joint research with universities in China to prepare business models and practices for China and Hong Kong.

I would also like to congratulate the Chinese University of Hong Kong for their success in operating the Hong Kong Internet Exchange (HKIX). The HKIX has enabled faster and more efficient switching of intra-Hong Kong Internet traffic, thus saving significant amount of precious bandwidth on our international links. It has also helped the Hong Kong Internet community to grow faster and healthier.

I am sure industry-academia collaboration will continue to flourish and new projects will soon be initiated in exciting areas like the provision of computer emergency services, digital content development, Internet2, etc.

You may wish to explore the other Digital 21 initiatives to identify new collaboration opportunities.

We are creating an environment which further encourages the development of high capacity telecommunications infrastructure through liberalization of the telecommunications markets. Substantial additional capacity at reasonable prices will provide the arteries through which digital information flows.

Apart from the physical network, we are also establishing an open and common software infrastructure to enable individuals, business and government to interact easily, securely and with certainty through digital networks. To this end, we are establishing a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) with the assistance of Hongkong Post, which will begin providing a public certification service by the end of the year. We have introduced an Electronic Transactions Bill into the Legislative Council to provide a clear legal framework for electronic transactions. We are also developing an open and common Chinese language interface for users in the community who prefer to communicate electronically in Chinese.

With the infrastructure in place, we aim to develop Hong Kong into an Internet Content hub for the Asia Pacific Region.

As many of you will know, the global Internet boom has already given rise to a whole new industry of Internet service providers, web-page designers, Internet shopping support services and so on. While I agree that there is a lot of scope for the consumption of Internet services and content in Hong Kong, I think an even greater opportunity lies in the development and supply of these services and content from Hong Kong to the rest of the world.

Given our bilingual capability, the free flow of information in and through Hong Kong, the freedom of expression that we enjoy and our unique position as a Special Administrative Region of China, Hong Kong is particularly well placed to serve as the Internet content hub for the Asia Pacific region and as the digital intermediary for doing business with the Mainland of China.

To take the lead in promoting the benefits and cost-effectiveness of e-commerce, we will launch the Electronic Service Delivery scheme, or ESD in short, in the latter half of year 2000. This will provide public services through the networks round the clock. The infrastructure developed for ESD will be made available at a later stage to the private sector for conducting e-commerce. We believe this will act as a catalyst to pump-prime the development of e-commerce in Hong Kong.

Lastly, for us to establish and maintain an advantageous position in cyberspace, we must foster a creative and technological culture in Hong Kong.

The Government will take the lead to develop the capacity, capability and commitment of officers and staff at all levels within government to take full advantage of the benefits and opportunities offered by new information technologies.

We will monitor Hong Kong's strengths and weaknesses in IT development and its development pace in relation to other places so that policies and measures can be made accordingly to keep Hong Kong in the forefront of IT development.

We will continue to promote the use of IT across the private sector, especially in small and medium sized enterprises, through various activities including seminars and exhibitions. Public recognition and award will be given to private sector organizations that have demonstrated excellence in the use of IT.

For the community, we will raise its awareness, confidence, and familiarity in the use of IT in all aspects of their lives.

Government's efforts alone are not enough. The academia, the industry and the Government must all join hands and work together to promote the development and take-up of new information technology.

I thank the HK Chapter of ACM in organizing activities, like today's event, to promote the exchange culture of postgraduate research. I look forward to working with you next year in the Asia Regional Collegiate Programming Contest.

Finally, I wish every participant a rewarding experience through today's sharing of experiences.

Thank you.

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