Speech by Mrs Carrie Yau, Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting at the Luncheon Seminar Co-organised with Indian Consulate General on "Hong Kong and India - A Partnership to Prosper in the IT World"

21 July 2000

The Honourable Minister Mahajan, Secretary Jayakrishnan, Mrs Sikri, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

It gives me a great honour to speak at the luncheon today. I am really glad to see so many guests and friends coming to join the event. I trust you will all find the event a useful forum to exchange views and explore business opportunities and partnership in the information technology field. As enshrined in the spirit of the MOU on IT co-operation which Hong Kong has signed with India, we will never be short of opportunities for collaboration between the two places in the area of information technology.

India has a world famous pool of talents in computer programming and software development. They are playing an instrumental role in many leading IT companies in the US, Europe and other IT advanced countries in the world. These software talents have also spurred the rapid growth of India's indigenous IT industry, as evidenced by its roaring software export.

People often say nowadays that the development of IT has touched on every facet of our daily life. We can see concrete evidence in India. I was told that the development of IT has led to blossoming of not only the IT industry, but the pubs in Bangalore, India's info-capital, are also doing roaring business as they have become the preferred meeting place for IT professionals, high-tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

For us, Hong Kong is one of the most internationalised and digitised cities in Asia. Our networks extend not only to all the world's major markets in North America and Europe, but also well cover the world's fastest growing market - the Mainland of China. Obviously, there is plenty of room for co-operation and partnership between Hong Kong and India. Let me now highlight some of our competitive strengths which may form the foundations for future co-operation.

The Telecommunications Hub

One of Hong Kong's most important assets is our fully digitised, efficient and high capacity telecommunications infrastructure which enables information, including those with multi-media content, to travel expeditiously and without interruption. Our telecommunications system was already fully digitised back in 1995. Today, our telecommunications infrastructure is amongst the best and most advanced in the world. All commercial premises and over 80% of our households are covered by broadband connections. Our external capacity, 44 Gbps at present, is amongst the top in Asia and will further increase by ten-fold in the next three years. This will well equip Hong Kong to develop into a communications hub in Asia.

Apart from the "wired" infrastructure, Hong Kong is also a leading hub for wireless applications. We now have a mobile phone penetration rate of 64% which is the highest in the world outside Scandinavian. Combining communications and computing technologies is gaining popularity as exemplified by the emergence of WAP operators and many WAP sites. And 3-G is also coming on stream. We will invite licence application by the end of this year. All these make Hong Kong a favourable place for e-commerce as well as m-commerce to prosper.

The Internet Metropolis

Next come Internet usage. As Hong Kong people have always adopted a positive attitude towards the use of latest technologies, we have successfully fostered an indigenous "Internet culture" in Hong Kong in a relatively short period of time. We now have about 2.5 million registered Internet accounts in Hong Kong and more than one-third of our population are Internet users. This shows that, on top of an advanced infrastructure, we have a community which is well adapted to the cyber culture, and a potential e-commerce market which is estimated by industry body to spend US$5.3 billion in 2004.

The Financial Centre

Another reputable strength of Hong Kong is our sophisticated and sound financial and banking system which provides capital financing services for the development of IT enterprises in Hong Kong, the Mainland and the Asia-Pacific. Hong Kong has always been the preferred place for raising capital by Mainland enterprises. Over 95% of the Mainland enterprises approved for overseas listing have chosen to list in Hong Kong.

The Growth Enterprise Market, established by the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in November 1999, in particular, can act as an intermediary to provide development capital for emerging local, Mainland and regional enterprises, especially the IT-related enterprises. Since its inception, the GEM has so far helped 35 emerging growth companies to raise over a total of US$1.8 billion. At the same time, Hong Kong has also developed into one of the Region's largest venture capital centres which provides start-ups with a readily available source of capital. As at mid-1999, the amount of venture capital managed by Hong Kong amounted to over US$17 billion, making Hong Kong the largest venture capital centre in Asia. All these enable Hong Kong to play an important role in the high-tech development of the Mainland and in the Region, including those in India.

The Cyberport

We know that many in the Region are eager to learn more about our Cyberport project, just like what people would like to know about Bangalore. Cyberport is a core element in building Hong Kong's own talents in IT. We will provide in the Cyberport the essential information infrastructure, which will take the form of a world class working and living environment, so as to develop in Hong Kong a strategic cluster of IT companies and a critical mass of IT professionals in the shortest possible time.

The Cyberport is a comprehensive development which comprises a mix of offices, residential, commercial and recreational facilities, supported by state of the art telecommunications and information infrastructure and a wide range of high-tech facilities such as multimedia laboratory and cyber library, etc. It is not just an ideal place for multinational corporations to locate their regional business centres, but also a "niche" for promising local companies to set up their operations. Situated within a pleasantly landscaped campus-like environment, the Cyberport will act as a focal point for the like-minded companies and professionals to exchange ideas, expertise and unleash creative synergy.

The Cyberport will develop itself into an international IT centre famous for creative and innovative IT applications. It will be completed in three phases between 2001and 2003. As at today, there are already 15 leading IT companies which have signed letters of intent to become anchor tenants. They include Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Legend, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. Another 140 companies, local and overseas, have also registered interest to become tenants. I also encourage interested Indian IT companies to discuss with us so as to put up their presence among these world-leading IT players in this state of the art infrastructure.

We have witnessed the benefits of clustering of IT companies and professionals elsewhere in the world. One of the success stories that impresses us most is the Software Technology Park in Bangalore which was set up by the Department of Electronics in 1991 to promote exports from the software and service industries. We look forward to fostering links between the Cyberport and your Software Technology Park and other similar developments in India.

Hong Kong - India: A Partnership to Prosper in the IT World

Well, so much about our strengths, I would now like to turn to how Hong Kong and India can partner together to capture the market niche and sustain our development so that both of us can prosper in the IT world.

As e-commerce will continue to be the focus of the new economy, demands for essential software such as those for customer relationship management, supply chain management, enterprise resource planning and so on are bound to be huge. The industries in both places can partner together to develop and market these intellectual products. We also welcome very much Indian IT professionals to work in Hong Kong. We will certainly be able to benefit from the excellent programming technology and skills of Indian IT professionals. Besides, the Mainland of China will soon enter into the WTO and this will open up yet another, perhaps the most promising, market in the coming decade for Indian IT industry. Hong Kong, being the Mainland's traditional springboard for foreign investors, will therefore further become an indispensable partner for India, and indeed for all other places in the world. There are certainly more windows for business collaborations between India and Hong Kong in the IT field. I trust that the entrepreneurs sitting here today will be able to explore the enormous opportunities.

To conclude, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to reiterate that Hong Kong is committed to working with India to foster a synergic alliance. I believe that our partnership in IT development will not only help us reap the business opportunities in the information world, but also help improve the quality of living of the global community.

I wish you every success. Thank you.

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