Inclusion of characters into Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set
24 - 03 - 2000

The Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) today (Friday) published on the Internet a public consultation paper on the procedures and principles for inclusion of additional characters into the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS).

The proposed procedures and principles were agreed by the Chinese Language Interface Advisory Committee (CLIAC) at its meeting held today.

According to the proposed procedures in the consultation paper, members of the public may apply to the Secretariat of the CLIAC for the inclusion of additional characters into the HKSCS.

When applying for inclusion of additional characters, members of the public and government departments should submit with their applications the glyph, pronunciation, meaning, usage, origin and example(s)of the characters.

The Working Group on Characters for Chinese Computer Systems (WGCCCS) under the CLIAC will validate the applications, and the additional characters endorsed will be publicly announced through the Internet.

Considering that space available in the user-defined area for computer character sets is limited, the WGCCCS suggested that additional characters to be included into the HKSCS should be those that can facilitate the public and government departments in electronic communication.

"The establishment of procedures and principles for inclusion of additional characters into the HKSCS will help coordinate the community's requirements of using characters for Chinese computer systems," said the Chairman of the CLIAC, who is also the Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Lau Kam-hung.

"The proper utilisation of the user-defined area of computer systems will also be ensured," said Mr Lau.

Convenor of the WGCCCS, Dr K H Cheung said,"In establishing the principles and procedures for inclusion of additional characters, we have to consider the needs of the public and of government departments in using characters for Chinese computer systems on the one hand and we should try to avoid the inclusion of unnecessary characters on the other."

"The space for computer coding in the user-defined area has to be properly utilised because it is a limited resource," said Dr Cheung.

The public consultation paper is available at the web site of ITSD ( http://www.itsd.gov.hk/itsd).

Members of the public can send their views and opinions on the procedures and principles for inclusion of additional characters into the HKSCS to the Secretariat of the HKSCS by e-mail to <cliac@itsd.gov.hk> before 20 April 2000.

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