Call for concerted efforts to turn E-government vision into reality

Thursday, May 31, 2001

The Government is to set up an E-Government Coordination Office under the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau to provide a focal point to coordinate E-government initiatives within Government departments.

The Coordination Office will have the mission to initiate necessary cultural changes within the Government for championing the E-government agenda, coordinate different agencies, address inter-departmental issues arising from the implementation of cross-departmental projects, and explore innovative implementation models for E-government projects.

"A senior policy officer will be appointed as the E-Government Coordinator to head the office and will report directly to me in driving the E-government strategy," said Mrs Carrie Yau, Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, at the opening of a seminar organized by the National Computer Systems Pte Ltd today (May 31).

Mrs Yau told the participants that the Government had early this month published the "2001 Digital 21 Strategy" signifying its firm commitment to lead by example in the adoption of e-business, both in conducting internal business operations and in delivering public services to the businesses and the community on an "anywhere anytime" basis.

The Digital 21 Strategy sets out several E-government targets, one example of which is to increase the percentage of public services with e-option in Hong Kong to 90 per cent by end 2003. So far, 65 per cent of public services which are amenable to the electronic mode of delivery have already provided e-options under the Electronic Service Delivery Scheme and other Government web sites. These include submission of tax return, renewal of driving licence, registration as a voter, etc. Over 100,000 visitors browse the Electronic Service Delivery web site everyday and the average hit rate per day is over a million.

"We will continue to roll out new services this year under the scheme, like booking of sports and leisure facilities, online sales of Government publications, registration to sit for public examinations, real-time traffic video services, and also for the marrying couples, booking of marriage dates, so that they no longer have to queue outside our Marriage Registry, sometimes for days, in order to secure the booking for some auspicious dates on the Chinese calendar," Mrs Yau said.

"The 90 per cent target by end 2003 is therefore very ambitious but should be achievable. It will cover not only existing services but also any new services to be introduced in future," she added.

The Government will also identify and drive the implementation of flagship E-government projects which can bring significant benefits to the Government and the community. The flagship projects, classified into four categories, are as follows:

Government-to-Citizen (G2C)

- increase the momentum to put public services online, in particular through the Electronic Service Delivery Scheme.

Government-to-Business (G2B)

- actively drive e-procurement initiatives and the development of an electronic marketplace for Government purchases; and
- set the target to carry out 80 per cent of Government procurement tenders through electronic means by end 2003.

Government-to-Employee (G2E)

- embark on initiatives that will facilitate the management of the civil service and internal communication with staff - one pilot project is to make leave applications and processing system paperless.

Government-to-Government (G2G)

- prepare the Government's Annual Estimates online - this will have an impact on all departments and will drive them to ride on the wave of e-revolution.

To assist Government departments to enhance their readiness and capability to develop E-government, Mrs Yau noted that all departments were now linked up through the $500 million Government Office Automation program and electronic mail was gradually replacing paper correspondence as the main mode of communication within the Government.

She said, "We will be spending another $180 million to roll out a Confidential Mail System to all departments by April 2002 so that we can securely exchange confidential information electronically. In total, we have earmarked $1.6 billion for capital expenditure within the current financial year to enhance the e-readiness and capability of our departments.

Mrs Yau called for the co-operation and collaboration with the industry and the community to jointly drive the strategy as Government efforts alone could not turn the E-government vision into reality.

"We need the support of the industry in undertaking E-government projects which we will actively outsource to speed up implementation. The public, who are the users of our services, should also actively embrace the use of IT and fully utilize the e-options we have provided. Only with such concerted efforts would we be able to forge ahead in building E-government," Mrs Yau emphasized.

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