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Archive > Year 2004 > ITSD > Speeches and Presentations in Year 2004
Welcome Speech by Mr. Alan Wong, Director of Information Technology Services at the Wireless and Mobile Symposium
29 - 06 - 2004
Mr. Lai, Distinguished Speakers, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning. Welcome to the Wireless and Mobile Symposium.
I believe most of you received an SMS (Short Message Service) through your mobile phone a few days ago telling you the time and venue of this Symposium. It didn't matter where you were, your personal attention was drawn to this message in a timely manner. This is the beauty of Wireless and Mobile Services and Technology (WMST).
Under the 2004 Digital 21 Strategy, the Government has put the adoption of Wireless Technologies and Services as one of the focus areas. As you are aware, my Department has been actively promoting WMST since the beginning of this year to bureaux and departments to raise their awareness of the applications and to encourage wider adoption.
The time is ripe for large-scale adoption of WMST. The penetration rates of mobile devices like mobile phone and personal digital assistants (PDAs) in Hong Kong are among the highest in the world. The mobile devices are rich in features and user-friendly, and our mobile network infrastructure is comprehensive and sophisticated. WMST provides new wireless and mobile channels for information dissemination, enquiry and even transaction processing. Apart from improving our work efficiency and productivity, WMST is fast becoming a new way of life. People can see and do many things through it anywhere, anytime.
As of April this year, the mobile subscriber penetration rate in Hong Kong was over 108%. The number of SMS messages sent and received a month were over 73 million and 140 million respectively. Moreover, between April last year and April this year the number of 2.5G customers has tripled from 326,000 to 999,000. These figures show that WMST is increasingly popular in Hong Kong. The launch of the 3G service 6 months ago, the bundling of multi-media capability on the mobile devices concerned, and its affordable pricing schemes have pushed forward the WMST adoption rate and the expectations of the community to a new high.
The range of WMST applications is unlimited. WMST can help us to provide better customer services to visitors to Hong Kong and thereby enhance the image of Hong Kong as a digital city. For example, as we get an increasing number of tourists from the Mainland, a welcome greeting message appearing on their mobile phones right after they embark on Hong Kong will give them a pleasant surprise. Useful information like shopping, dining, weather, transportation, event schedule etc. can also be shown via their mobile phones during their stay here. This gives our visitors a good impression of Hong Kong; it will also help to raise the competitive edge of our tourism industry.
WMST also has a very important role to play in the logistics industry, another pillar industry of the Hong Kong economy. The use of Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographical Information System (GIS), Navigational System and related tracking solutions on vehicles can enhance the efficiency of fleet operations and management. The deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology on asset items and commodities can also provide wireless tracking ability which in turn can save time and improve accuracy in inventory control and warehouse management. WMST is surely a useful tool in improving the efficiency and competitiveness of the logistics industry.
In the last two years, we have seen more departments deploying WMST to improve their operational efficiency and to provide additional channels for their services. According to a recent survey conducted by ITSD, 45 out of the 82 bureaux and departments had deployed 115 WMST applications as at the end of 2003. I am pleased to note an upswing by 25% in terms of number of applications adopted in 6 months' time. The survey also indicates that around 70 applications were being planned or implemented. These findings reflect not only the steady increase in the use of WMST in the Government but also the fact that there are numerous WMST applications that can be deployed by bureaux and departments.
In order to provide a platform for developing WMST applications, solutions and services, the Innovation and Technology Fund has funded a project initiated by the wireless technology industry to set up the Hong Kong Wireless Development Centre (WDC) at the Cyberport last December. The WDC brings together wireless solutions developers and equipment vendors and provides them with a neutral and central platform for the development, testing and marketing of innovative applications and services. The ultimate objective is to support the development of Hong Kong into a regional mobile and wireless hub in the Asia Pacific Region so as to attract investments and talents from around the world.
Towards the end of last year, I set up a Task Force comprising the representatives of the IT industry, the wireless technology industry, the WDC, the HKPC and ITSD to plan and implement a programme of activities which cover awareness promotion, applications development and professional training.
Today's symposium and the ICT Expo in April this year are part of the awareness promotion programme. On professional training, we have arranged training sessions on J2ME and wireless LANs which I believe some of you here may have attended. With regard to wireless applications development, two applications namely "Mobile Access to Government Web Sites" and "Sending SMS and MMS from Government Email System to Any Device", which are shown in the ITSD and WDC booth in the exhibition room next door, are some of the application opportunities identified for promoting the wider use of wireless services. In fact, "Sending SMS and MMS from Government Email System to Any Device" is the fruit of co-operation among the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Wireless Development Centre and my Department.
Last summer, ITSD began to use wireless email for official business. Members of the senior staff are given a device which is connected not only to the GCN but also the Internet. The device is a mobile phone as well. We use this handy device to receive and send our emails any time no matter we are in Hong Kong or overseas by virtue of the device's global roaming capability. This WMST application has substantially raised our efficiency. Earlier this month, we have extended the wireless email service to other bureaux and departments. Please consider adopting this mobile e-mail solution for your senior staff and yourselves.
Last month, ITSD issued an e-Memo to all E-business Coordinators to encourage them to consider WMST applications in all the new IT projects where appropriate. Bureaux/Departments can benefit from WMST by enhancing the level of operations and service delivery through such applications as mobile email, mobile information access, and mobile service access, just to name a few.
For those bureaux and departments already using WMST, the possibility of further widening the scope of WMST applications should be explored, for example, by broadening the user base of the existing WMST applications; and exploring the use of WMST in the new business areas and in the integration with the existing applications through business process re-engineering. Besides, they can also explore with other bureaux and departments the potential for developing joined-up applications and one-stop services to the public.
To reap the full potential of WMST, we still have to address a number of issues such as the mobile device's capability to support Chinese language, wireless security, interoperability standards, user interfaces, etc. I understand that the wireless industry, the network operators and the IT industry have been pooling their efforts in addressing the issues.
This Symposium, which has assembled experts from the industry, the academia and the Government, will provide an excellent opportunity for us to share experiences and exchange views. In the room next door, nearly 2 dozen live projects and demonstrations will be shown. During these two days, apart from the speakers and the exhibitors, my colleagues will also be around to help you understand better WMST and related issues.
Finally, I should like to thank Mr. Stephen Lai, the Director of the Hong Kong Wireless Development Centre, for his support, and our industry partners for staging the exhibitions. I should also thank our distinguished speakers for sharing with us their valuable insight and experiences.
I wish you all an informative and stimulating experience today and tomorrow.
Thank you.
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