Hong Kong possesses best potential to develop electronic business

November 30, 2000

Members of the Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee (IIAC) discussed the Digital 21 IT Strategy review, the proposed multi-application smart identity (ID) card, the progress of the IT Hong Kong campaign, and the plan of the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau to develop e-government at its second plenary meeting today (November 30).

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, Mrs Carrie Yau, who is also chairman of the IIAC said members were briefed by the Government's consultant on the review of the Digital 21 IT Strategy.

"The consultant had identified four key result areas with which the Government should pursue in order to enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness in the digital economy," she noted. These include :

- to create a world-class environment for e-business
- to develop a workforce for the information economy
- to ensure government leads by example; and
- to exploit enabling technologies

"After listening to the views of members, the Government would finalize the strategy and have it promulgated very soon," Mrs Yau said.

On the smart ID card project, the IIAC supported that the new generation of ID card should adopt smart card and has the capacity to support multiple applications. Members agreed that the implementation of a multi-application smart ID card scheme would be a significant step forward in enhancing the overall information infrastructure and in keeping Hong Kong in the forefront of world information technology development.

Mr Anthony Au, President of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation and a member of the IIAC, said the IIAC supported the implementation of the multi-application smart ID card scheme in an incremental manner.

"The Committee noted the public concern about privacy protection and security of the smart ID card and urged the Government to put in place effective measures to satisfactorily address these matters in the implementation of the scheme. It also recommended that the smart ID card should have the capacity reserved for future inclusion of additional applications.

"Minimal data should be stored on the card and for the great majority of the additional applications, cardholders should have a choice as to whether such applications should be incorporated onto their cards," Mr Au said.

The meeting also noted the progress of the IT Hong Kong campaign, which was launched in September 2000 to promote the wider use of IT in the community. The campaign was co-organized by the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau (ITBB), the Information Technology Services Department and the Home Affairs Department. A number of promotional events have been organized, including the IT awareness programme to provide basic IT training at district level; recruitment of IT pioneers to promote wider use of IT; launching of district IT activities; and a TV highlight show.

Professor Francis Chin, Chair of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science and Information Systems of the University of Hong Kong, and a member of IIAC, said that since the launching of the IT awareness program in October this year, about 3,000 people, mainly housewives and elderly, had attended the course.

"Due to the positive response, the Government would organize the second round of the course. Separately, awareness courses will also be provided to people with disability through partnering with the Social Welfare Department and the Hong Kong Council of Social Services," said Professor Chin.

"As regards recruitment of IT pioneers, more than 4,500 have joined the campaign. To further strengthen the promotion work, a major TV show would be held in December 2000," he added.

The IIAC is a major advisory body, with members appointed by the Chief Executive, to advise the Government on major policy issues relating to IT and telecommunication development in Hong Kong. Members include Legislative Council members, leading figures in the IT and telecommunications fields, academia and Government officials.

The Committee has also established a Working Group on E-commerce Environment and Technologies Exploitation and a Task Force on IT Manpower to help it address issues on e-commerce, technologies exploitation and IT manpower in greater detail.

The meetings of the IIAC are held once every two to three months and the next meeting has been scheduled for February 2001. At today's meeting, the Committee agreed on the arrangements to brief the media on the issues discussed after each meeting. "This is to increase the transparency of the deliberations of the IIAC, in addition to putting its agenda and papers on the ITBB web page for public scrutiny," said Mrs Yau.

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