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Speech by Mr. Alan Wong, Director of Information Technology
Services at the "HKITF Networking Hour" on
20 July 2001
Charles [Mok], friends and colleagues,
First of all, I would like to thank you, Charles, for your warm
introduction. I am greatly flattered by your generous remarks
about me. I would also like to thank you and your Federation
for giving me the opportunity to network with so many accomplished
IT professionals and practitioners today. This is especially
useful as I have commenced my appointment as the Director of
Information Technology Services for just a few days.
Today's gathering gives my colleagues and me an excellent occasion
to meet our IT industry partners and to exchange views on the
development of IT in Hong Kong. Moreover, we also get an excuse
to put aside our work and share our concerns, joys and grievances
(hopeful not very many!) with other IT practitioners a human
network for the good of the industry and the community.
We really need such temporary respite from toil from time to
time as we are human beings with sensibility and feelings, not
computers. As the Government's IT advisor and facilitator, ITSD
plays a significant role in driving the Government's IT Strategy
which is set out in detail in the recently promulgated 2001
Digital 21 Strategy. One of the major objectives of the Strategy
is to foster the development of the IT industry locally. To
this end, we will continue to strengthen our co-operation with
the IT industry and to maintain close contact with the various
professional bodies and trade associations of the industry.
As you will have noticed, in the past few years, we have made
significant and continuous effort on this front. In the past
financial year, we have actually exceeded our planned target
of outsourcing 2/3 of the Government IT projects. Over one billion
dollars worth of government IT projects were outsourced. In
February 2001, the Judiciary concluded a contract to outsource
on a departmental basis all of its application development,
maintenance and related IT services. Three other departments,
namely, the Intellectual Property Department, the Water Supplies
Department and the Legal Aid Department are also planning to
outsource their IT activities on this basis. A few months ago,
my department laid a new milestone in promoting the IT outsourcing
policy by awarding the first contract that outsourced IT application
maintenance services to a local small and medium-sized enterprise.
We are also proactive in providing Government IT projects and
tenders information to the IT industry through the Internet.
To enable the interested parties to obtain tender information
in the first instance, we have established a mechanism to notify
registered parties through electronic mail when there are open
IT tenders. For more information, you are most welcome to visit
our Digital 21 website at www.digital21.gov.hk.
Another key initiative is to stimulate more collaboration between
the IT industry and the academia. Last month, we successfully
organised the third Tripartite Forum to bring the IT industry,
the venture capital industry and IT researchers together to
promote the commercialisation of IT research output. In this
regard, I would like to take this opportunity to express my
sincere gratitude to the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation
for the generous support given to us in making the event another
success.
Since its establishment in the early 80's, the Hong Kong Information
Technology Federation has become one of the most influential
organisations in the Hong Kong IT Industry. I wish to put on
record our appreciation of the contribution and unfailing support
made by the Federation to the local IT industry. I am sure that
we will all be able to work together in the years ahead to further
develop Hong Kong as a leading digital city.
Thank you.
- ENDS -
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