Welcoming Remarks by Mr. Howard C Dickson Government Chief Information Officer at "the Opening Ceremony of the Government Wi-Fi Programme"
31 July 2007

Rita, Thomas, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning! I am pleased to welcome you all to the Opening Ceremony of the Government Wi-Fi Programme "GovWiFi". It's my great pleasure to have all of you, our honourable guests and the media, to witness this momentous event to mark the launch of the Programme and related roving shows.

Obviously the world is becoming unwired. We are in a world in which we are unwiring ourselves, thanks to the advances such as wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi. There are currently about 1,300 Wi-Fi hotspots in the commercial and residential areas of Hong Kong. We expect over 3,000 in the near future. To extend the Wi-Fi coverage more completely, the Government launches the Wi-Fi Programme to provide about 350 Government premises with high public use so that citizens and foreign visitors can access the Internet freely. Undoubtedly, wireless and mobile technologies are contributing to our quality of life, extending our reach to people and changing the ways we study, do business, enjoy our leisure and access government services.

I would like to express my gratitude to the Honourable Sin Chung-kai, and distinguished guests from the ICT industry. I thank you for your support and interest in the Wi-Fi Programme. It is expected that the Programme would not only bring about convenient access to information and services to all the sectors of the general public, but also generate business opportunities for the ICT industry to build on this initiative with more mobile related consumer products, applications, solutions and services, and in doing so, bring in more employment opportunities to the industry.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you, our partners from the 13 departments, for making your venues available with hotspots for public wireless Internet access. At the Government hotspots, you can go wireless to access knowledge, information and services freely, and just stay connected. In particular, my thanks go to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department for opening up its own Wi-Fi network here at the Heritage Discovery Centre starting from today. As a pioneer move prior to our main Wi-Fi Programme, this network enables members of the public to experience in advance the convenience and benefits brought about by the Wi-Fi facilities.

Apart from that, also starting from today, members of the public can visit a series of roving shows on the Wi-Fi Programme here in the Heritage Discovery Centre and the Public Enquiry Service Centre of the Central and Western District Office, and four other locations at a later stage.

Before I close, I would like to thank you all for coming here today! And again, my warmest welcome to you!

- END -