Speech by Mrs Marion Lai, Acting Permanent Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology at Forum on "Use of Grid for Business Process Integration in HK/China" on 3 September 2003

Professor Tsui, Ms Chung, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted to have been invited to this forum on Use of Grid for Business Process Integration in Hong Kong/China. Today, we have a gathering of distinguished experts from the academia and industry, as well as representatives from different Government departments, who are eager to explore the possibilities that can be opened up by grid computing. We all look forward to exchange of stimulating ideas and views on this subject among the experts this afternoon. Grid technology is a kind of advanced and enabling technologies and I would like to focus on the role of and measures adopted by the Government in encouraging and assisting in the exploitation of such technologies.

2. As many of you are aware, we have promulgated the Digital 21 Strategy to drive IT development in Hong Kong. The ultimate aim is to make full use of IT to help Hong Kong retain its competitive edge and to propel economic growth. One of the key result areas in the Digital 21 Strategy is to leverage Hong Kong's strengths in exploitation of enabling technologies. Hong Kong is an early adopter and mature user of technologies. We have long been recognised internationally for our achievements in application of new technologies.

3. To cultivate an innovative culture in Hong Kong and encourage research in and development of applications and services using new technologies, the Government has taken a wide range of measures. These include providing funding support for research and development projects from the Innovation and Technology Fund, and the Government taking the lead in applying new technologies in its internal operations and running pilot projects. For example, the E-Business Technology Institute of The University of Hong Kong, a co-organiser of this forum, has received funding support from the Innovation and Technology Fund to establish an electronic business infrastructure in Hong Kong using the ebXML standard. Companies in the private sector and a few Government departments are now piloting the use of the infrastructure established.

4. Grid computing presents another opportunity for collaboration among the academia, industry and government in exploiting emerging technologies. Grid computing is about coordinated sharing and problem solving in dynamic, multi-institutional virtual organisations. The Internet has opened up a completely new world for, among other things, sharing of information and provision of services. The advent of grid technology presents us with a powerful tool to exploit further the possibilities and benefits offered by the Internet.

5. Grid computing has been successfully deployed in scientific research where there are often needs for scientists from institutions to collaborate, for example, in the analysis of large amount of data collected from special equipment or generated from simulations. With the success of using grid computing to enable collaboration among scientists, grid technologists are now aiming to extend the use of grid computing to enable collaboration among business partners.

6. The potential for grid computing to be deployed in facilitating business process integration should not be overlooked. This is particularly the case in Hong Kong. The diffusion of grid computing depends on the rapid development of broadband networks. Our broadband network reaches all commercial buildings and virtually all residential buildings. Our broadband penetration is among the highest in the world, and broadband charges are very competitive. Hong Kong's infrastructure is indeed ready to support grid computing.

7. We are therefore keen to keep abreast of developments in grid technology, and explore its application, in particular, within the Government at the initial stage. Within the Government, the Air Policy Group of the Environmental Protection Department, or EPD in short, has built its own grid to handle air quality modeling. The EPD divides the modeling job, which is a computationally intensive job involving many sets of parameters, into smaller job packages, each handling a different set of parameters. The job packages are executed on the personal computers of various EPD officers after office hours. Large computation jobs can thus be executed using EPD's existing personal computers during otherwise idle time, without necessitating the acquisition of additional computers.

8. EPD has also just formed a partnership with the E-Business Technology Institute of HKU, or ETI in short, to launch a pilot grid project. Under this project, ETI plans to test and benchmark a prototypical grid infrastructure that will allow outside parties, in this case EPD, to access HKU's computer resources made available to EPD. With this grid infrastructure, EPD can access far more computer resources than it currently has for air quality simulations, making it possible for EPD to conduct larger scale simulations in a shorter time. This represents another good example of collaboration between the academia and government on research in and application of new technologies.

9. The local academia is also keen on the deployment of grid computing. For example, the ETI is also collaborating with research and industry institutions in the Mainland on a drug discovery application grid under the 863 Hi-tech Research and Development Program of China. The Department of Computer Science and Information Systems of HKU is participating in another project under the 863 Program that connects the Department's 300-node cluster to the China National Grid for joint development of grid middleware.

10. The industry also plays an important part in the development and deployment of grid technology. In addition to offering commercial grid solutions in the market, it also provides funding support and researchers to research projects on grid computing. I am sure that the other speakers of the Forum today will have exciting stories to tell on the latest research in and application of grid computing in Hong Kong, the Mainland and other parts of the world.

11. So far, successful implementation of grid computing tends to be in the area of scientific research that requires super computing power and massive data resources. However, with the rapid development of grid computing, there may be opportunities that Hong Kong will benefit in other application areas, such as those requiring extensive processing power or access to data or programmes hosted elsewhere.

12. As a first step to promote the application of grid computing in Hong Kong, the Government has taken a series of measures to enhance awareness of grid computing, targeting at Government bureaux and departments initially. To promote the concept of grid computing to Government bureaux and departments, the Information Technology Services Department, or ITSD in short, has set up a grid computing theme page on the Government Intranet. An exemplary grid has been set up at ITSD's IT Solution Centre for bureaux and departments to have hands-on experience with grid-enabled applications. ITSD has also organized seminars on grid computing for representatives of the academia and grid solution vendors to share their knowledge and experience with users from bureaux and departments.

13. In addition, ITSD has been exploring with bureaux and departments the potential of exploiting grid technology in their operations. This includes, for example, deployment in data mining, investigative and forensic work, statistical modeling, geographic information systems, and scientific modeling. ITSD will also encourage and assist them to assess whether they have specific problems that can be solved by existing and emerging grid technology.

14. Grid computing is a useful application for problems or scenarios the scale and nature of which can justify the efforts to build, manage and use a grid. In light of the contemporary development of service-oriented grid architecture, the potential widespread impact of grid computing on operations of both the public and business sectors should not be overlooked. We will continue to monitor both technological and market developments to assess whether, how and when the new technologies and market offerings could be employed or adopted to facilitate and promote E-government. We will also explore with experts in the academia and industry how we can jointly exploit grid computing for the benefit of the community.

15. Finally, I would like to stress that the Government is firmly committed to leveraging Hong Kong's strengths in exploitation of enabling technologies. With the concerted efforts of all stakeholders, we will be able to reap the benefits presented by grid technology to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in computing.

16. Thank you.

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