ESD receives international recognition

September 27, 2001

The Hong Kong Government's Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) Scheme is one of only 14 winners in this years' Stockholm Challenge Award held in Stockholm, Sweden, yesterday (September 26).

This year, there were over 740 projects from 90 countries competing for the 14 awards under seven categories, namely Public Services and Democracy, Culture and Entertainment, Health and Quality of Life, Education, New Economy, Environment, and Global Village.

At a prize presentation by the Mayor of Stockholm, Mr Carl Cederschiold, Hong Kong received the first prize under the Public Services and Democracy category.

The Stockholm Challenge Award, organized annually by the City of Stockholm, is an international IT-awards program that has made Stockholm a hub in a global movement to bridge the digital divide. The Mayor of Stockholm said he hopes that in 10 years time, this award will become the "Nobel Prize" for information society development.

The panel of judges, a group of international IT experts, based their evaluation on four criteria - innovation, user need, sustainability and transferability. Members of the panel were impressed by ESD's innovation to create a one-stop public and private service portal for the community under public-private sector partnership. They also considered that the life-line picture in the ESD web site gave the site the touch of life.

Commenting on Hong Kong's success today (September 27), Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, Mrs Carrie Yau, said: "The prize demonstrates Hong Kong's competitive position as a pioneer in the development of electronic government, and reinforces Hong Kong's image as a leading digital city in the globally connected world."

"We are delighted to hear that Hong Kong's IT development is recognized in the international arena again. We will continue to drive our E-government agenda, with a view to providing convenient and user-friendly online services to the community," she added.

The ESD Scheme, a key E-government initiative in Hong Kong, aims completely to transform the way public services are delivered. As one of the world's first web sites that integrates both public and private sector services in a citizen-centric approach, the ESDlife web site (www.esdlife.com) now provides over 100 types of public services from more than 30 Government departments and public agencies.

Mrs Yau said the Government had promulgated a comprehensive E-government strategy, including setting a target for providing e-option for 90 per cent of the public services amenable to the electronic mode of service delivery by end 2003.

The ESD Scheme will be further expanded, as a means to meeting the target. "We will soon launch a number of additional ESD services are related to the daily lives of the public, such as the booking of sports and leisure facilities, booking of marriage dates, sale of Government publications and statistical data, registration to set for public examinations, etc.," she said.

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