Speech by Mr. Alan Wong, Director of Information Technology Services at the Joint Web Care Award and CyberPort Website Design Competition Award Presentation Ceremony
15 - 05 - 2004

Dr. Quat, Dr. Tang (President, Cyberport Tenants Club), Mr. Paul Tang (DSW), Mrs Patricia Chu (Chair, EOC), Professor Doctor Bruck, Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good Morning.

I am delighted to take part in this Awards Presentation Ceremony which is jointly organized by the Internet Professionals Association (iProA) and the Cyberport Tenants Club.

Bridging the digital divide is a major component of our Digital 21 Strategy, Hong Kong's blueprint for development of information and communication technologies (ICT). We are firmly committed to this task on the conviction that all sectors of the community are entitled to benefit from the advancement of science and technology, and in particular ICT, which increasingly plays a key role in enhancing the quality of life.

In Hong Kong government websites are now in compliance with the international standards with regard to web accessibility, in order to facilitate access and navigation by the visually impaired. A couple of months ago, we also launched a pilot Sound Portal with a view to further enhancing the access of web information by the elderly and visually impaired users. Employing the latest Text-to-Speech technology, the Portal will enable the user to "read" out aloud the content of the websites of four government departments in Cantonese, Putonghua or English. The four departments are the Department of Health, Social Welfare Department, the Space Museum of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, and the Information Services Department.

We are committed to working with the ICT industry, the academia and the social service community for the common purpose of making Hong Kong a digitally inclusive city in the globally connected world. The Web Care Campaign is one of the major collaborative initiatives. Seminars and workshops are conducted regularly to encourage the adoption of barrier-free web design in the private sector. The aim is to provide a barrier-free Internet environment for the people of Hong Kong so that every citizen may enjoy equal opportunity in sharing the benefits brought about by the development of new technologies such as the Internet.

Today, we are here to pay tribute to the companies and service organizations for their efforts made in the provision of barrier-free Internet services and fully accessible websites. On behalf of the HKSAR Government, I would like to express my appreciation of your sense of social responsibility and spirit of community service.

The second award to be presented today goes to our young future ICT talents. To maintain Hong Kong's competitiveness, we must have an abundant supply of highly skilled human resources in ICT so as to meet the demand for such manpower in a knowledge economy. We fully recognize the need to work closely with educational and vocational training institutions and the ICT industry to enhance the training and skills of our workforce and our next generation.

This year, the Cyberport Tenants Club, of which my department, ITSD, is also a member, has organized a meaningful event, the Cyberport Website Design Competition targeting the students in secondary schools and the universities. The aim is to groom future ICT talents in Hong Kong. It has provided both professional training as well as opportunities for the participants to exercise their creativity and extend their social network through which they can exchange knowledge and experience with like-minded ICT enthusiasts.

As one of the Judges of the Competition, I can tell you that it has been really difficult to pick out the winners from the many interesting and creative entries !

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the participants of the Competition. Without their participation, the event could not have been so successful. I should also like to thank the organizers, the IProA and the Cyberport Tenants Club, for organizing this event. To the award winners, I wish to extend my warmest congratulation to them on their achievements. And to all of you, let's keep up the momentum and continue to harness the benefits of ICT for our community.

Thank you.

- END -