Information infrastructure facilitates e-commerce adoption
24 - 08 - 2000

The Government has put in place the framework and infrastructure for e-commerce to flourish in Hong Kong.

Adopting e-commerce has been recognised as an effective and important means to help retain Hong Kong's competitive edge and to drive its overall economic expansion.

Speaking in the opening ceremony of an exposition on software components and quality assurance for e-commerce applications today (August 24), the Acting Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Cheng Yan-chee, said, "The Government is taking the lead in promoting the benefits and cost-effectiveness of e-commerce through the launch of the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) scheme."

Through the ESD scheme, members of the public will be able to obtain public services 24 hours a day and seven days a week through the Internet and other electronic means as well as public information kiosks.

A wide range of public services provided by 10 government departments and public agencies such as submitting tax returns, applying for business registration certificates and looking for job vacancies will be covered under its first phase of implementation scheduled for October 2000.

"The information infrastructure being developed for ESD will become available for use by the private sector for the conduct of e-commerce at a later stage," said Mr Cheng, "This will act as a catalyst to pump-prime the development of e-commerce in Hong Kong."

In order to facilitate the rapid development of a high capacity telecommunications infrastructure necessary for e-commerce, the Government encourages more competition and innovation under an open, fair and predictable regulatory framework.

As a matter of fact, Hong Kong has already had excellent telecommunications infrastructure and services to enable electronic transactions to be performed effectively and efficiently over the Internet.

Citing a few statistics, Mr Cheng said,"Our broadband networks cover all the commercial buildings and nearly 90 per cent of the households."

"We have one of the most vibrant mobile telecommunications markets in the world with a mobile phone service penetration rate of 69 per cent, amongst the highest in the world.

"Our external connectivity is amongst the highest in Asia, second only to Japan," he said.

To address the concern of the businesses and community over the security and confidentiality of electronic transactions, Mr Cheng noted that the Government had established a clear legal framework to provide a secure environment for the conduct of e-commerce in Hong Kong.

"The Electronic Transactions Ordinance was enacted by the Legislative Council in early January 2000," said Mr Cheng.

"It gives electronic records and digital signatures used in electronic transactions the same legal status as that of their paper-based counterparts.

"Besides, it establishes a framework to promote and facilitate the operation of recognized certification authorities (CAs)," he continued.

The Government has also taken the initiative of setting up a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) that covers the use of public key cryptography and digital certificates.

PKI enables us to authenticate the identities of the parties involved, to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of the messages exchanged, and to make sure the transactions cannot be repudiated.

The establishment and operation of CAs, which are responsible for the issuance and renewal of digital certificates, enables the large-scale deployment of the PKI technology that in turn facilitates the development of e-commerce.

Hongkong Post has already become a public CA since 31 January 2000, and implements the PKI technology to support various e-commerce applications.

To protect consumer interests and to enhance users' confidence in electronic transactions, the Government has established a voluntary system of recognition whereby CAs are free to apply for recognition from the Government.

Under the Ordinance, the Director of Information Technology Services is the authority of granting recognition to CAs which have achieved a trust standard acceptable to the Government and have adopted a common and open interface in their operations.

"The issue of personal privacy is also a major concern for consumers who wish to conduct their transactions electronically," said Mr Cheng.

"The Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance gives protection to consumers in this regard," he added.

Through the use of pamphlets and guidelines on the web, the Government joins hands with quasi-government bodies to promote to the public these regulations, their rights and the proper way to use the Internet.

Considering that Chinese is the mother tongue of the majority of the people in Hong Kong, it is also very crucial to develop a common Chinese language interface to promote e-commerce in the local community.

To tackle the current problem of using Chinese in electronic communications, the Government published the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set in September 1999.

It is also taking an active role in 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.

The new ISO 10646 standard to be released later this year will facilitate data exchange and electronic transactions conducted in Chinese.

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