Welcome Speech by Mr Y C Cheng, Deputy Director of Information Technology Services at the "Gearing up to e-Business" Seminar on 09 - 11 - 2000

Mr Tang, Mr Lau, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning! Welcome to the first "e-World for the Professionals" seminar jointly organised by the Hong Kong Productivity Council, the Joint Professional Centre (JPC) and the Information Technology Services Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government. We take pride in jointly hosting the first seminar in this Centre since its foundation stone laying ceremony in August this year.

In last month's Policy Address, our Chief Executive reiterated that in gearing up Hong Kong for the knowledge economy, innovation and technology are essential to enhance productivity for our sustained economic growth. This is, to a large extent, in line with the "i-WISE" strategy of the JPC, which includes Information technology management, Window for global networking, Innovative enterprise, Synergised professional community, and E-world opportunities.

The rapid development of e-business has been one of the most remarkable developments that affect our work and lifestyle. It brings about new opportunities, opens up new markets and helps to reduce costs. To the professional community, there is no exception. In fact, as professionals of the Information Age today, we all strive to excel in terms of efficiency and customer satisfaction by exploiting what technology can offer. "e-business" or "e-commerce" might be some buzzwords some time ago. But now the challenge is, "how well are we doing it?"; or "how do we prepare to do it, if we haven't started yet?"

The Government has been leading by example with our commitment to encourage the development of e-commerce to maintain Hong Kong's competitive edge and to drive our overall economic growth. In the "Digital 21" IT Strategy formulated some two years ago, we already set out our vision to enhance and promote Hong Kong's information infrastructure and services so as to make Hong Kong a leading digital city in the globally connected world of the 21st century. The Strategy builds on Hong Kong's established strengths to foster an environment conducive to the development of e-commerce in Hong Kong.

However, the SAR Government cannot work alone. We need the participation of all sectors of the community, including the professionals, in the adoption and development of e-commerce.

Today's seminar is the first one of a series of seminars entitled "e-World for the Professionals". I would like to express my sincere thanks to our distinguished speakers who will be sharing with us their valuable experience and knowledge in a moment. I hope you will find today's seminar fruitful and enlightening.

Thank you.

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