Hong Kong drives e-government excellence
13 - 03 - 2003

E-government initiatives remained a high priority despite budgetary restraints in the coming years, Acting Director of Information Technology Services Mr Stephen Mak Hung-sung said today (March 13).

Mr Mak was making the keynote speech at the Delivering e-government Excellence Seminar. The seminar brought together officials from government departments and public service corporations, as well as information technology (IT) practitioners to discuss IT solutions to ensure excellence in e-government services.

Mr Mak said the e-government strategy was formally launched in May 2001 (as the Digital 21 Strategy) to position Hong Kong as a leading e-business hub.

"Over the past two years, through the concerted efforts of the E-government Co-ordination Office, e-business co-ordinators and colleagues in various bureaux and departments, we have made substantial progress in our e-government programme," he said.

By the end of 2002, the Government has already provided 81 per cent of public services amenable to electronic mode of delivery with an e-option and is confident of reaching its target of 90 per cent by the end of this year.

Last year, the flagship Electronic Service Delivery Scheme saw a 40 per cent increase in monthly transaction volume. The scheme is already the channel for over 140 online public services from over 40 departments and agencies, and the Government will continue to extend its scope, improve its service quality and drive its usage further.

Last November, the Government launched the Interoperability Framework, which contains the technical and data specifications that facilitate the seamless integration and interconnection of government applications and their public interfaces.

An Extensible Markup Language (XML) Co-ordination Group has also been set up to help develop a strategy for more effective use of XML in the Government.

"These initiatives not only represent the adoption of innovative technologies, but also signify the Government's commitment to streamlining business processes and realising the full potential of collaborative working," Mr Mak said.

In the area of trade and logistics, the Government is actively developing the Digital Trade and Transportation Network to drive e-commerce to improve Hong Kong's competitiveness.

It will also develop a multi-modal cargo clearance system for road transportation. These initiatives will support Hong Kong as a key logistics hub between the Mainland and the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, good progress has been made in the development of the new Smart Identity Card programme, which will be rolled out in the middle of this year.

The card is expected to provide further impetus to the community's adoption of e-options for government services and will be conducive to many innovative uses for e-transactions that the public and private sectors can consider.

"We have embarked on a number of joint e-government initiatives," Mr Mak said. These include the study on an Integrated Criminal Justice System linking those departments involved in the arrest of suspects, identification, prosecution, trial, correctional and rehabilitation processes and the release of the convicted person.

An e-option for citizens to notify their change of address to a large number of government departments using a single online interface will also be developed and studies on the setting up of information and transaction portals for business, property, and licensing operations are ongoing.

To deliver more e-options with limited resources, the Government has been rigorously applying the 3Rs - re-prioritise, re-organise and re-engineer and the one M - the making use of market capabilities.

"While maintaining our momentum for e-government development, we do make use of resources and expertise from the market while bearing in mind the need to reduce the size of the civil service," Mr Mak said.

The establishment of IT Management Units in bureaux and departments and an aggressive IT outsourcing strategy were initiatives launched to help achieve this goal.

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