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Speech by Mr Alan Wong, Director of Information Technology
Services at the "ITSD Networking Hour" on
28 September 2001
Dear friends and colleagues,
First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude
to all of you for joining this gathering at the expense of your
valuable time. We have friends coming from the IT industry,
professional bodies, academia and other government bureaux and
departments. Your participation has reflected your keen support
to the IT industry and the IT initiatives of the Government.
Being the Government's IT advisor and facilitator, ITSD need
to make continuous efforts to implement the various IT initiatives
of the Government. To achieve these, we will continue to strengthen
our co-operation with you. To kick off this networking hour,
I would like to spend a few minutes to share with you the latest
developments of some major Government IT initiatives and other
related issues.
As you know, we have been outsourcing on an assignment basis
under the Information Technology Services Agreement (ITSA).
This contract will expire some time next year. With the increasing
momentum of the Government's IT outsourcing strategy, we are
now inviting tenderers for assignment-based IT services. The
tender will be closed in October this year and we plan to award
the contracts early next year. Under the new Information Technology
Professional Services Arrangement (ITPSA), we aim to engage
as many as 26 contractors, as opposed to only one in the current
ITSA. Our objectives are to increase participation in Government
IT projects by the industry, to enhance our capacity for IT
services delivery and to accelerate the delivery of IT solutions.
Basically, the ITPSA tender covers four categories of IT professional
services. They include general system development and maintenance;
web publishing; office systems and network implementation; and
IT security. Within each category, we have sub-divided into
two sub-groups to cater for basic and more stringent service
requirements.
We believe that the ITPSA will not only provide wider choices
to user departments and widen the business opportunities for
the IT industry, but also enhance service quality of IT projects
and lower their costs through healthy competition.
Another major tender that is now being processed is the Smart
ID Card system for the Immigration Department. It was issued
in July this year and has just been closed today. A new HKSAR
ID Card will be introduced in 2003 and a territory-wide ID card
replacement exercise will be conducted for all residents in
Hong Kong by phases in 4 years.
The major consideration for adopting Smart ID Card is that it
can employ more sophisticated cryptographic techniques to protect
data and to ensure that it cannot be fraudulently altered. Furthermore,
we need the smart card solution with multi-application capacity
to support both Immigration Department's own business activities
(e.g. identity authentication, condition of stay/limit of stay
updating, automated passenger clearance) and other non-ID applications
(such as library card, digital certificate and electronic authentication).
I am sure that the success of this Smart ID Card project would
serve to demonstrate the great achievement of our IT talents.
Since 1998, we have adopted an infrastructural approach to developing
IT solutions for government bureaux and departments with reference
to the Government Systems Architecture (GSA). In response to
the E-government strategy, we have reviewed the GSA recently
and are developing an Interoperability Framework to support
future E-government applications. This Framework is essential
to maintaining interoperability while allowing end-users the
freedom to choose from different architecture, hardware and
system software. It also facilitates integration of applications
to provide client-centric services. We will promulgate and implement
this Framework by the middle of next year. We believe this Framework
will help the industry assess the government market and tailor
their products and services to suit our needs.
Under the 2001 Digital 21 Strategy, we will strive to position
Hong Kong as a leading e-business community. To achieve this
goal, we must tackle IT security as a matter of priority. With
the rapid growth in the use of computer, Internet access and
e-commerce; and the increasing attacks by cybervandals, we must
all give top priority to IT security. Prevention is always better
than cure. ITSD closely monitor information on computer security
made available by international and local organizations to keep
abreast of the trends of computer security attack and solutions
available against such attack, and organize seminars on IT security
for the public to promote their awareness. We also post anti-virus
information on the Government Information Centre website for
access by public. Free anti-virus tools are also available for
downloading. Within Government, we have adopted a four-prong
approach in tackling IT security :
establishment of IT security policy guidelines for adoption
by government departments;
installation of security devices, including hardware, software
and the adoption of security procedures;
continuous monitoring and control of all incoming network
traffic with automated tools; and
regular review and assessment on our exposure to security
risks.
Prevention of IT security risks should not be the sole responsibility
of the Government but requires close collaboration of the
industry and IT players.
IT is becoming more and more important in our daily lives.
We will continue to foster the community to embrace, develop
and use IT, but the Government alone cannot achieve all these.
I would therefore like to appeal to you for the support and
collaboration in making these initiatives a success.
To avoid defeating the purpose of this gathering, I must stop
here because two-way communication is always better than one-way,
particularly in the 'chit chat forum' of this evening.
Once again, thank you very much for your presence.
- ENDS -
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