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Archive > Year 2005 > OGCIO > Speeches and Presentations in Year 2005

Opening Speech by Mr. Howard C Dickson, Government Chief Information Officer, at the 2005 IEEE International Conference
30 - 3 - 2005

Prof. Tsang, Dr. Cohn, Prof. Lin, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning. It is my honour to be invited to speak at the 2005 IEEE International Conference.

The theme of this Conference is e-Technology, e-Commerce and e-Service. Today, I would like to share with you some of my thoughts on how our ICT and e-Government strategies relate to this theme.

The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region first set out its blueprint for developing Hong Kong into a world-class digital city in a strategy titled "Digital 21" in 1998. The focus was to build the right environment, infrastructure, skills and culture to encourage the development and adoption of IT by the entire community for e-business to prosper in Hong Kong.

Last year, we published the new 2004 Digital 21 Strategy with eight main focus areas to sustain Hong Kong's position as a leading digital city. Among them, the "Sustainable e-Government Programme" focus plays an important role in propelling Hong Kong forward, and to put in place an infrastructure for citizens, businesses and the Government to work together to achieve the intended outcomes of this Programme. Let me highlight some of our achievements and new initiatives with respect to the "triple-E" theme of the Conference:

e-Technology

The first E is e-Technology. Our territory-wide replacement exercise of the Hong Kong Identity Card has revolutionized the utility of identity papers of Hong Kong citizens. With the adoption of smart card technology, the Smart ID card supports the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and stores a digital certificate to facilitate the use of electronic services that require strong authentication, confidentiality, information integrity and non-repudiation. Moreover, Smart ID cardholders can now enjoy the automated passenger clearance system, the "e-channels" being rolled out at selected control points for faster and more convenient immigration clearance. This system employs the use of state-of-the-art, biometric technologies for verification of a person's identity.

Beside the smart ID card, the Immigration Department will be introducing biometric passports embedded with a contactless, integrated circuit chip containing the facial image and personal information of the holder by early 2007. This is meant to step up the integrity and security control of passports at our control points and internationally.

To take advantage of the full potential of our excellent wireless and mobile communications infrastructure, we have recently established a task force involving industry experts and researchers with a view to facilitating the wider adoption of such technologies in the community. The task force will look at emerging technologies including Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Global Positioning Systems, Location Based Services and Geographic Information Systems that ride on these technologies.

e-Commerce

The second E is e-Commerce. To provide a clear legal framework for the conduct of e-commerce in Hong Kong, the Electronic Transactions Ordinance (ETO) was enacted in January 2000 to accord electronic record and electronic signature the same legal status as that of their paper-based counterparts. We also established a voluntary recognition scheme for certification authorities to enhance public confidence in electronic transactions through the adoption of PKI technologies.

The Government has taken the initiative of developing and providing a variety of electronic services to improve services to the public and to promote the wider adoption of electronic transactions in the community. One of the key initiatives is the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) scheme, which provides interactive and transactional public services in a one-stop and customer-oriented manner. Under our new wave of e-government strategies, we plan to develop clusters of e-government services that can interoperate and interact with other e-commerce platforms. This will hopefully create more synergies between government and private sector initiatives.

In light of Hong Kong's prime position in the Pearl River Delta, the Government is fully committed to providing a conducive environment and the necessary infrastructure to facilitate the development and promotion of Hong Kong as the preferred international and regional transportation and logistics hub. To this end we are developing the Digital Trade and Transportation Network (DTTN) System. This system aims to provide an open, neutral platform and secure interface for information exchange and transactions among the relevant sectors and Government.

e-Services

The last E is e-Services. Like other economies that are relatively mature in e-Government development, Hong Kong needs to set new directions for and inject new impetus into the e-Government Programme so as to generate more visible and tangible value for the community at large. Our vision for the next wave of e-Government is to use information technology to provide customer-centric services that promote an accessible, accountable and efficient Government and contribute to Hong Kong's achievement as a leading digital city.

Building on our past achievement, we need to deepen the e-Government Programme and focus more sharply on service quality and effectiveness. We will step up our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) efforts to provide more customer-centric and business-friendly services to citizens and businesses through clear CRM policies and guidelines for departments.

We will also promulgate a channel management strategy to provide departments with guidelines on how to segment their customer base with a view to enhancing the functions and utilisation of service channels for both conventional and electronic services.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think I should stop here although I have only scratched the surface of our e-Government Programme. In fact, there are tremendous challenges ahead. While government leadership is vital in realising our goal of building Hong Kong into a dynamic digital city, we will also continue to work with the industry, the academia and the community to achieve even greater success in the years ahead.

I would like to congratulate the organizers for their success in organizing this Conference. To our guests from overseas, I would like to extend a warmest welcome to you and wish you an enjoyable stay in Hong Kong.

Thank you.

- ENDS -

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