Development of IT benefits the public
16 - 06 - 2000

The Government keeps on improving the information infrastructure in Hong Kong and promotes awareness on information technology (IT) to ensure that the public will be able to enjoy the benefits brought by IT development.

Addressing a seminar on how the development of IT will benefit users of social services, the Acting Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Cheng Yan-chee, said today (June 16), "Through the use of IT, organisations providing social services can improve efficiency and raise service standards, which will benefit users."

Mr Cheng noted that IT could assist in the delivery of social services, and the users themselves were able to obtain social services and improve quality of life by utilising IT.

There are various examples that persons with disability and senior citizens have successfully applied IT and made use of the Internet to improve their quality of life.

To ensure that members of the public will benefit from the development of IT, the Government has undertaken various initiatives to provide the necessary information infrastructure to support the use and development of IT.

"The Government has introduced measures to encourage more competition and lower the cost of using telecommunications services by the public, which will eventually lead to easier and more frequent use of IT in the community," Mr Cheng said.

To enable computer users to communicate electronically in Chinese accurately, the Government will adopt the ISO 10646 standard as the open and common Chinese language interface in Hong Kong.

In the latter half of this year, the Government will launch the first phase of the Electronic Service Delivery scheme under which members of the public can obtain public services through the Internet or other electronic means 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

As to measures enhancing the public's knowledge on the use of IT, the Government has provided free computer facilities for use by the public through different channels.

"Free access to computer facilities and Internet services are provided in many District Offices, Community Halls and Centres, Post Offices and Public Libraries," said Mr Cheng.

To encourage and facilitate young people to use IT, the Government last year granted funds of about $20 million for the provision of free computer facilities and Internet services at 125 children and youth centres and agencies.

The "IT Appreciation for Parents" programme launched by the Information Technology Services Department in December last year is another measure.

The programme aims at providing more than 90,000 parents of secondary school students with basic IT knowledge to enable them to guide their children on the proper use of the Internet.

"The Government also organises promotional events frequently to promote the use of IT such as the Cyber Week 1999 and the 1999-2000 Integrated IT and Academic Quiz," Mr Cheng said.

Catering for the needs of persons with disability, the Government has issued guidelines to bureaux and departments on the design of web pages, and granted funds for the provision of computer facilities specially designed and configured for them.

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