Government promotion of e-commerce to retain competitiveness
07 - 01 - 2000

The Government is committed to promoting e-commerce in Hong Kong to help retain its competitive edge and to drive its overall economic expansion.

Speaking at a forum on Hong Kong's competitiveness in the new millennium today (Friday), the Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Lau Kam-hung, said that the conduct of trade through the Internet was gaining popularity.

"In 1998, the total amount of trade conducted all over the world through the Internet is US$200 billion and an industry estimate suggests that the amount will rise to US$1,800 billion by 2003," Mr Lau said.

"As for the consumers' market, it is expected that the number of consumers who shop on the Internet will increase from 31 million in 1998 to 183 million by 2003," he added.

At present, there are about 1.5 million of Internet users in Hong Kong and the number is on the rise.

The use of the Internet in Hong Kong last year, calculated in the time spent on the dail-up network, doubled that in 1998.

"The total amount of trade of goods and services in Hong Kong conducted over the Internet is predicted by the industry to rise to US$2.4 billion by 2003 from US$60 million in 1998," Mr Lau said.

These significantly increased figures and estimation show that more and more organisations in Hong Kong have recognised that e-commerce can bring them immense new business opportunities and have engaged themselves in this revolutionary mode of trade.

With a view to promoting and facilitating e-commerce in Hong Kong, the Government has adopted a proactive approach to enhancing Hong Kong's infrastructure and services.

The Government is working with the Hongkong Post in the development of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to enhance the users' confidence in electronic transactions.

The Information Technology Services Department is going to set up the Certification Authority Recognition Office (CARO) to support the PKI.

Through the use of digital certificates issued by certification authorities (CAs) and digital signatures, participants in electronic transactions will be able to ensure the authenticity, security, integrity and non-repudiation of messages exchanged in the transactions.

To provide the necessary legal framework for the conduct of electronic transactions in Hong Kong, the Government had introduced into the Legislative Council the Electronic Transactions Bill which was enacted last Wednesday (January 5).

With the enactment of the Bill, electronic records and signatures used in electronic transactions will have the same legal status as that of their paper-based counterparts, and a framework is established to promote and facilitate the operation of CAs to ensure trust and security in electronic transactions.

"To lead by example in the adoption of e-commerce, the Government is going to introduce the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) scheme," Mr Lau said, adding that the scheme was expected to be launched in October this year.

Through the ESD scheme, round-the-clock services will be provided to the public through the Internet and other electronic means.

Mr Lau believed that the ESD scheme could help create an environment conducive to the development and adoption of e-commerce as the open and common information infrastructure being developed for the scheme would be available to the private sector for conducting e-commerce at a later stage.

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