Building an E-government and IT-savvy business community
05 - 09 - 2002

The Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Alan Wong Chi-kong, introduced the HKSAR initiatives on building an E-government and IT-savvy community in Hong Kong to information and communications technology (ICT) practitioners in Malaysia at an ICT seminar held at Kuala Lumpur today (September 5).

Mr Wong pointed out that an effective E-government would not only improve the administrative aspects of governing, but also significantly improve the overall efficiency of the economy and foster a better environment for doing business.

An effective E-government also helps enhance the competitiveness of an economy which nowadays depends increasingly on the extent to which IT is adopted by its government and businesses.

In pursuing the E-government initiatives, the HKSAR Government strives to move away from the conventional approach of service delivery on individual department basis and provide more customer-oriented, value-added and one-stop government services.

Mr Wong said, "To achieve our goals, we have set out clear target to provide more government services on-line to the community. Our target is to increase the percentage of e-option of government services to 90 per cent by end 2003. At present, over 78 per cent of government services amenable to the electronic mode of delivery are already provided with an e-option."

"We have made significant progress in implementing many projects under our E-government initiatives," he said.

The Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) Scheme, which is one of the flagship E-government projects providing more than 130 convenient public services around the clock through the ESD web site (http://www.esd.gov.hk), has recorded an accumulative total number of visitors exceeding 32 million since December 2000.

Our other important E-government initiatives include: the replacement of some seven million identity (ID) cards with Multi-application Smart ID Cards; the promotion of an electronic inter-modal transportation system and other supporting facilities to speed up the flow of goods and information; and the study on the provision of a one-stop web service for on-line enquiry of property information and related services provided by government departments.

To enlarge the delivery capacity for IT services and to accelerate the delivery of IT solutions, the HKSAR Government has been pursuing a vigorous outsourcing strategy since April 1999. Currently, more than 80 per cent of the new government IT projects have already been outsourced.

Mr Wong also noted that the HKSAR Government, in enhancing the e-business environment in Hong Kong, had established a clear and supportive legal framework through the enactment of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance.

He said, "The HKSAR Government has taken the lead in accepting electronic records under various provisions of the legislation."

"To provide a safe and secure environment for the conduct of electronic transactions, we have also built a public key infrastructure through the establishment of a public certification authority (CA) and a voluntary CA recognition scheme in Hong Kong."

"We will provide support to our business community in the use of IT through various funding schemes, such as the SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) Funding Schemes. We are also providing assistance to our business community through our industry and trade support organisations," he said.

During his stay in Malaysia, Mr Wong also joined a Hong Kong delegation and participated in the International Judging Panel of the Asia Pacific ICT Awards 2002 held at Kuala Lumpur between September 2 and 7.

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