Sharing of global and local experience on e-commerce in seminar
31 - 05 - 2000

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) participating in a seminar today (May 31) obtained valuable experience and knowledge on e-commerce in both local and global perspectives.

The "Seminar on E-commerce in the New Millennium" held today was jointly organised by the Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) and the Asia Oceania Electronic Messaging Association of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

It was aimed at enhancing the awareness and knowledge on e-commerce of the local SMEs.

Apart from local speakers, representatives from renowned organisations in Australia, Japan, Singapore and the United States brought in their experience and knowledge of e-commerce from the global and Asian-Pacific perspectives.

Also speaking in the seminar today, the Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Lau Kam-hung, said that the Government was fully committed to encouraging the development of e-commerce to maintain Hong Kong's competitive edge and to drive our overall economic growth.

The Government has adopted various measures to create an environment conducive to the adoption and development of e-commerce in Hong Kong.

"To ensure that electronic transactions can be performed effectively and efficiently over the Internet, we need a high quality and high capacity telecommunications infrastructure to provide bandwidth and services at affordable prices," said Mr Lau.

"Our broadband networks cover practically all commercial buildings and are available to over 80 per cent of households. Externally, the total capacity of our submarine cables stands second only to that of Japan in Asia," he added.

The Government encourages more competition and innovation to further enhance Hong Kong's telecommunications systems for the development of e-commerce.

The provision of a clear and supportive legal system by the Electronic Transactions Ordinance also enhances the security in the conduct of electronic transactions which is a major concern of the community in adopting e-commerce.

The Ordinance, enacted in January 2000, also provides for a voluntary certification authority recognition scheme under which certification authorities (CAs) may apply to the Government for recognition on a voluntary basis in order to protect consumer interests and to enhance users' confidence in electronic transactions.

"CAs serve as trusted third parties to ensure trust and security in electronic transactions," said Mr Lau.

"Through the use of public and private key pairs and digital certificates, individuals and businesses can establish the identity of the other party in electronic transactions, ensure the integrity and confidentiality of the electronic messages transmitted over open communication network, and safeguard the non-repudiation of electronic transactions," he said.

As part of the Government, Hongkong Post is the first public certification authority whose operation conforms to international security standards to support various e-commerce applications in Hong Kong.

To address the current problem of using Chinese in electronic communications and to enable e-commerce to reach out to all potential customers who prefer to communicate electronically in Chinese, the Government published the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set in September 1999.

It is also taking an active role in the ongoing discussions with the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) on the development of the ISO 10646 standard which is intended to encompass all written scripts, including the Chinese characters commonly used in Hong Kong.

In the long run, the Government is going to adopt the ISO 10646 standard as the open and common Chinese language interface in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, the Government is taking the lead by introducing the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) scheme aiming not only to improve the delivery of public services but also help to familiarise our citizens with the e-commerce mode of delivery and give them the confidence in electronic transactions.

Under the ESD scheme of which the first phase will be launched this October, a wide range of public services will be provided over the Internet and through other electronic means 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

"The open and common information infrastructure that we are developing for ESD will serve as a platform for the private sector to make use of in conducting e-commerce at a later stage," said Mr Lau.

ITSD has also organised a series of free seminars on e-commerce in conjunction with other organisations to enable local companies, especially SMEs, to embark on e-commerce. Today's seminar was an example.

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