Speech by Mr. Stephen Mak, Deputy Government Chief Information Officer, at the Hong Kong International Computer Conference 2006 Panel Discussion on Leadership
14 - 09 - 2006

[Changes to the IT industry landscape and The World Around Us]

Thank you, Chairman.

Advances in digital computing and communication technologies have radically revolutionized how we live and interact with one another. They have also brought about the rapid convergence between traditionally separate sectors including telecommunications, broadcasting and IT services. This convergence in some ways manifests itself in the gradual migration to the Triple Play business model by previously disparate service providers. Together with Fixed/Mobile convergence, we even have Quadruple Play services gaining attention. All these are causing new interpretations on some well known hypotheses on ICT developments ?

• One formulation of Moore's Law states that CPU chips would double in clock speed every 18 months. That chip is now seen in the context of multiple chips serving different parts of a system and in things like RFID.
  
  
• Metcalfe proposed that the value of a telecommunications network was proportional to the square of the number of users of the system. The network as he saw it has now grown in both dimensions, reach and media.
  
  
• Reed's Law states that the utility of large networks can scale exponentially with the size of the network. Even if the utility of groups available to be joined is very small on a per-group basis, eventually the potential group membership can bring surprising economic results. The groups themselves are forming at a formidable rate nowadays.
  
  
• According to Dr. Vinton Cerf, commonly referred to as one of the founding fathers of the Internet, it is risky to predict the future of something as dynamic as the Internet. It seems safe to say that we will see a continuing explosion of new services. Nonetheless, it is every reason to believe that the Internet will transform education, business, government, and personal activities in ways we cannot fully fathom.
  
  

[Changes in user demographics, lifestyles and the effects of globalisation]

Many economies are experiencing the direct impact of these changes, and certainly Hong Kong is no exception. We are seeing the increasing pervasiveness of technology and infrastructure, towards ubiquity in some cases even. The pace of technology advancement and innovation and the rate of generating new content and information are notably faster than before. While these will no doubt bring new opportunities for data sharing and information management, they also remind us to pay due attention to issues of data ownership, standardisation and authentication.

We are also seeing tangible differences in the demographics and behaviour of the ever growing Internet community. The notion of "Growing Up Digital" described in Don Tapscott's book of this name is indeed happening to our younger generation and youth groups who are fast becoming an important segment of information users. On the other hand, societal changes like an aging population, discussions on how IT and information management can help in healthcare, transportation, social welfare and district administration are also changing our vision of an expanding IT industry landscape.

All these will lead to substantive changes in demand in the utility of IT systems and services. More importantly, they also affect the modes for delivering them.

[IT Leadership and the Government]

Against this background, I would like to relate these developments to some of the strategies and initiatives that the Government is taking, and their potential effect on the IT infrastructure and application environment in Hong Kong.

The rapid pace of technology innovation, adoption and application necessitates a coherent strategic response from the Government. For this reason, our first Digital 21 Strategy, the IT blueprint for Hong Kong was set out in 1998 in partnership with the private sector and the community. Since then, the Digital 21 Strategy has become a living document that has kept pace with the changing technological, business and social environments, and has been updated every three years or so.

The first Digital 21 Strategy in 1998 aimed to enhance and promote Hong Kong's information infrastructure and services and emphasized on capacity building - high capacity communication systems and people who knew how to use IT. We liberalized the telecommunications and broadcasting regimes to enhance competition, consumers' choice and quality of service. We put in place a legal framework for the conduct of e-commerce and implementation of a public key infrastructure. We progressively put government services online.

As e-business emerged as the primary driver for the information age, our Digital 21 Strategy in 2001 capitalized on the opportunity and positioned Hong Kong as a leading e-business community and global digital city. The Government took the role of enabler and exemplar in promoting adoption of e-business. This was reflected in our e-Government programme to provide an e-option for 90% of public services amenable to the electronic mode of service delivery, and the formal appointment of E-business Coordinators in all departments.

In the 2004 Digital 21 Strategy, the Government increasingly played the role of a facilitator and champion to enhance the innovation capability of industry and the community, and to encourage investment and R&D on innovation in IT. These include efforts in fostering the development of digital entertainment, wireless and mobile applications and creative industries.

As I speak, the 2007 Digital 21 Strategy is already in the making, and through selected focus groups we have been getting enormous support and contribution of ideas in both the scope and content of the strategy. Our plan is to put the draft strategy to public consultation later in the year.

IT leadership in the Government context is multifarious and not necessarily top-down. It includes diverse elements like thought leadership on Hong Kong's digital strategy mentioned above. The support and quest for innovation and technology exploitation is manifested in the recent establishment of 5 strategic R&D centers. Our market liberalization policy and practice continue to be on par with leading international trends. Our legal framework for electronic transactions is reviewed from time to time to stay abreast with technology developments and usage experiences. We place great emphasis on recognition for standards and interoperability, and have set up the Interoperability Framework Co-ordination Group to facilitate data standardization and sharing among relevant sectors.

Having reviewed our initial experience in delivering electronic Government services, we see great potential for progressive and yet futuristic growth of the community information infrastructure. To this end, we have substantially expanded the scope and functionality of the E-Government Infrastructure Service that is based on a Service Oriented Architecture and conducive to the wide adoption of Web Services. Earlier in the conference you may have heard of another major strand of our work involving the creation and delivery of innovative and customer-centric e-government applications, with private-sector involvement where applicable, under an established E-government strategy. A progressively evolving government infrastructure as well as the concept of clusters are meant to provide impetus for more community-wide developments in applications and infrastructure. It is conceivable that developments similar in nature to the Smart ID Card and the Digital Trade and Transportation Network (DTTN) initiatives will be applicable in some of these clusters.

Government has long recognized the importance and benefits of intellectual capital and knowledge management, and intellectual property protection. Apart from promoting policies and practices among government departments on software asset management, we are also taking an active part in relevant community initiatives. The introduction of a Digital Rights Management facility at the Cyberport is one such example.

To provide further incentives for industry to innovate, we have also launched a pilot scheme whereby the intellectual property developed in the course of Government IT contracts is vested with the contractors, except under special circumstances.

As a large employer of IT human resources, we take an active part in the development of the competency and qualifications framework for IT manpower and the development of IT professionalism in Hong Kong.

Recognizing Hong Kong's unique position and opportunities in the Mainland context, we have established comprehensive collaboration frameworks with our neighbours. These include the cooperation on IT and E-government among governments in the "9+2" Pan-Pearl River Delta region, and the Expert Group on Collaboration on Informatisation with the Guangdong provincial government. In the latter case, specific areas of cooperation have been identified, with industry involvement where applicable.

[Summing Up]

I could go on - but I think I should stop here. As you can see, Government IT leadership manifests itself in a number of ways - as thought leader, facilitator, collaborative partner, exemplary adopter of innovative applications, platform provider, and last but not least, champion and advocate of the relevant innovations, technologies and standards.

I'm sure you'll agree with me that Government action alone is not enough. Through constant dialogue with industry and relevant support groups and non-government organizations, we do however have a solid basis to innovate and further enhance Hong Kong's IT infrastructure and applications environment.

Thank you.

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