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Building an efficient e-government and an IT-savvy community
07 - 11 - 2001
The Government leverages on the advances in information technology
(IT) to build an efficient e-government and an IT-savvy community
as part of its strategies to drive Hong Kong as a leading digital
city.
Speaking at the XIIth World Productivity Congress today (November
7), the Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Alan
Wong Chi-kong, also noted that the implementation of a comprehensive
policy to build an e-government was one of the key result areas
of the Government's IT strategy -- "Digital 21".
The main aim of the strategy is to promote the further development
of IT and e-commerce, and to further strengthen Hong Kong's
position as a leading digital city in the region.
Mr Wong said, "To build an efficient and effective e-government,
the Government is committed to leading by example in the use
of IT, both in conducting internal business operations and in
delivering public services."
"We have set a target of providing e-option, the option to obtain
the service through electronic means, for 90 per cent of the
public services which are amenable to the electronic mode of
service delivery by end-2003. At present, 65 per cent of such
services already have an e-option."
He also noted that the Government would continue to roll out
new services under the Electronic Service Delivery scheme, through
which members of the public can obtain a wide variety of public
services via the Internet and public kiosks 24 hours a day and
seven days a week.
Mr Wong said, "We are actively driving e-procurement initiatives.
We have already introduced one of the world's first Electronic
Tendering System to issue and receive bids through the Internet.
The next target is to develop an electronic marketplace for
procurement transactions for low-valued purchases.
"We have rolled out projects such as electronic leave application
and processing system to reduce administrative costs and foster
an e-government culture within the civil service.
"We are also implementing a phased programme for adopting inter-departmental
and intra-departmental electronic transactions which include
putting the process to prepare the annual estimates on-line,
developing systems to allow departments to place orders on-line
for common store items and for printing government publications,"
he added.
To assist government departments in enhancing their readiness
and capability in electronic transactions to develop e-government,
the Government operates a wide range of central infrastructural
support services and facilities.
Besides, the Government is planning a number of enhancements
to its IT infrastructure which include improving the accessibility
to computer facilities in the civil service, upgrading to broadband
connections to the Government backbone network, and establishing
an interoperability framework to support future e-government
applications.
A dedicated E-government Coordination Office was also set up
in August this year to steer and coordinate the overall implementation
of the e-government initiatives.
To speed up the IT solutions in the Government, enlarge the
delivery capacity and to foster development of IT industry locally,
the Government adopted a vigorous outsourcing strategy in the
delivery of its IT projects.
It has already achieved the target of outsourcing two-thirds
of new government IT projects. In the current fiscal year, over
80 per cent of new projects amounting to about $1.3 billion
will be outsourced.
Mr Wong said, "By taking the lead in the use of IT, we aim to
encourage the wider adoption of IT in the community which is
another strategic area in our 'Digital 21' IT Strategy."
"The objective of this area is to ensure that the entire community
will benefit from the development of IT in enhancing our quality
of life."
Measures to promote the use of IT in the community include the
launch of the "IT Hong Kong" Campaign which comprises a series
of promotional activities and IT-awareness programmes; the provision
of public computer facilities; and the promotion of web accessibility.
- ENDS -
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