Sharing of E-government and Electronic Service Delivery Scheme experience with Mainland counterparts
21 - 05 - 2002

The Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Alan Wong Chi-kong, shared with his counterparts and information technology (IT) practitioners in Mainland China the strategy and experiences of building Hong Kong's E-government and the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) Scheme in a Guangzhou seminar today (May 21).

Speaking at a seminar on advanced technologies and new economies of the IT Week Forum of the Guangzhou Science and Technology Week, Mr Wong told the participants that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government had formulated its first IT strategy, the "Digital 21" Strategy, since 1998.

To prepare Hong Kong to ride the next wave of the e-revolution, the "Digital 21" Strategy was revised in 2001.

The 2001 Digital 21 Strategy builds on the solid foundations Hong Kong has established for leveraging IT to position Hong Kong as a leading e-business community and global digital city.

Mr Wong said, "The building of an E-government is one of the key result areas of the 2001 Digital 21 Strategy, and we have implemented a comprehensive policy to build E-government."

"In August 2001, we set up a dedicated E-government Co-ordination Office to drive and co-ordinate E-government initiatives.

"Besides, we have set the target of providing e-option for 90 per cent of public services amenable to the electronic mode of service delivery. About 70 per cent of such services have already got an e-option currently.

"We also ensure that the backend process of our on-line services are engineered to optimise efficiency and effectiveness.

"The internal information infrastructure of the HKSAR Government is also strengthened to sustain the various E-government initiatives.

"Moreover, we deploy resources to enhance the skills of the management and staff in the civil service and provide the necessary tools for exploitation of E-government opportunities," said Mr Wong.

While introducing concrete E-government measures implemented by the HKSAR Government, Mr Wong highlighted to the participants the ESD Scheme which was formally launched in January 2001.

Under the ESD Scheme, the Hong Kong community can obtain a wide range of user-friendly and one-stop services from various departments and agencies and to transact with Government on-line efficiently and securely through Internet-connected computer facilities and public kiosks around the clock.

Mr Wong said that the ESD portal (www.esd.gov.hk), providing both English and Chinese versions, was a pioneer in the integration of the delivery of public and private sector services.

The usage of the ESD services and response from the Hong Kong community has been very encouraging, and more than 1.5 million transactions have been recorded since its launch.

Apart from the ESD, the roll out of a new generation "smart identity (ID) cards" for the Hong Kong citizens by phases starting from around mid-2003 is another E-government measure of the HKSAR Government.

The new smart ID cards will be more secure, adopt the most advanced anti-forgery features, and have multi-application capacity. This will be one of the biggest multi-functional smart ID card replacement projects in the world.

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