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Archive > Year 2006 > OGCIO > Speeches and Presentations in Year 2006
Opening Remarks by Mr. Stephen Mak, Deputy Government Chief Information Officer, at the "Sixth Supply Chain Management CEO Summit PRD Alive! - New Supply Chain Paradigm in the Pearl River Delta"
12 - 10 - 2006
Ms Lin, 鄒副廳長, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon! I am very pleased to be here to address you at this 'Sixth Supply Chain Management CEO Summit 2006' on 'New Supply Chain Paradigm in the Pearl River Delta'.
[Introduction - the 11th Five-Year Plan]
2006 is the first year of China's eleventh Five-Year Plan, which is binding for the entire nation. Under the "One Country, Two Systems" principle, our Motherland has for the first time included Hong Kong in the National Five-Year Plan, clearly stating that it will support Hong Kong's development on fronts such as financial services, logistics, tourism and IT industries. We should therefore grasp the opportunities arising from this and reinforce our status in these four key industries. As you may know, the Chief Executive hosted an Economic Summit last month to look at ways in which Hong Kong can continue to maintain its status as an international centre of Financial services, Trade, and Shipping. Specific Focus Groups comprising community leaders, academics and government are working on a proposed Action Agenda in the coming few months. Of particular relevance to our topic today would be areas concerning infrastructure, innovation, technology, and support for research and development.
[Government's role relating to informatisation between the Hong Kong SAR and the Mainland]
Among the four industries, the logistics and IT industries are obviously related to today's main theme. So I would like to share now some information about just some of the work that the Government is undertaking to enhance co-operation and collaboration in the area of informatisation between Hong Kong and the Mainland.
[Government's Support]
In terms of financial support, the Government established a Guangdong / Hong Kong Technology Co-operation Funding Scheme in 2004. This funding scheme aims to enhance the level of collaboration on R& D between organizations in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province. There are six RFID-related projects funded under the scheme, including the "EPC Network Infrastructure project to enable end-end supply chain visibility" from GS1. The total amount of funding for the six RFID-projects is around 45 million HK dollars.
In April this year, the Government also set up five R&D centers under the Innovation and Technology Fund. These centers provide funding support to undertake industry-oriented research in technologies that are increasingly in demand in the Pearl River Delta. Among the centers, the Hong Kong R&D Center for Logistics and Supply Chain Management Enabling Technologies, -- or LSCM for short -- is targeted at fostering the development of core competencies in applied R&D in logistics and supply chain related technologies. LSCM also facilitates the adoption of these technologies by industries in Hong Kong and on the Mainland to enhance their competitiveness.
[Collaboration Mechanisms with the Mainland at National level]
The Government has also established collaboration mechanisms to facilitate co-operation with the Mainland at three different levels, that is, at the national level, the pan-PRD level, and the Guangdong Provincial level.
At the national level, the Mainland/Hong Kong Science and Technology Co-operation Committee (內地與香港科技合作委員會) was established in December 2004 to organize and co-ordinate technology exchange and collaboration activities between Hong Kong and the Mainland with a view to formulating technology collaboration programmes, and to foster commercialization of research and development results and technology transfer to the industry. The Committee is co-chaired by the Government officials of both sides; the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology representing HK and the Vice-Minister of Science and Technology of the Central Government (國家科學技術部副部長) representing the Mainland. The Committee has agreed to enhance technology co-operation and exchanges in four areas, namely RFID technology, automotive parts and accessory systems, integrated circuit design, and Chinese medicine. The Working Group on RFID Technology (射頻識別技術工作組) was established under the Committee in 2005 to take forward co-operation and exchanges in the areas of RFID technology.
[Collaboration Mechanisms with the Mainland at pan PRD level]
At the pan-PRD level, the "5-year Pan-Pearl-River-Delta - or PPRD - Co-operation Plan in Informatisation for 2006 to 2010" was endorsed during the PPRD Leaders' conference held in June 2006. The plan provides a strategic blueprint for ICT co-operation among the PPRD provinces/regions. RFID is one of the co-operation areas that we participate in.
[Collaboration Mechanisms with the Mainland at Guangdong Provincial level]
At the Guangdong Provincial level, the Hong Kong/Guangdong Expert Group on Co-operation in Informatisation, - or EGCI - (粵港信息化合作專責小組) was formed under the aegis of the Hong Kong/Guangdong Joint Conference to strengthen co-operation in informatisation between the two places. The first meeting of the EGCI was held in May this year.
The leading agencies of the Expert Group are the Department of Information Industry of Guangdong Province and our Office of the Government Chief Information Officer. In addition to the government bureaux and departments, representatives from industries and academia participate in EGCI. So far, nine co-operation areas have been identified under the EGCI. They are :
Among these nine areas, we have set up a working group to take forward the work on "promoting the use of RFID in logistics, customs clearance and quarantine". This working group also looks to the LSCM to closely collaborate with the Guangdong RFID Technology Service Center, along with the logistics industries in Hong Kong, to promote the adoption of Supply Chain Management technologies in both Guangdong and Hong Kong.
Closer to home, as we work out our 2007 version of the Digital 21 Strategy for IT development, a number of strategic initiatives have been identified to bring further improvements in our next generation of public services. These include the establishment of one-stop government portal for electronic services, GovHK, embarking on pilot projects on eProcurement, setting a vision for eHealth and the potential for sharing of electronic health records, and development of intelligent transport systems.
[Summing Up]
In light of the Mainland's development strategy for independent innovation and technology, HK can play an active role in promoting innovation and technology in the industries of both sides, in particular in the PRD. To further enhance the competitiveness of our logistics industries, there are indeed many areas in which the government and the private sectors can continue to collaborate in promoting the application of ICT in the supply chain. Events such as this one that aim to bring new insights on standards, next-generation technologies and best practices to the wider community are therefore very timely and for that I congratulate GS1 and its co-organisers for staging them. Surely the best practices we adopt today will benefit generations of people and business to come.
Thank you.
- ENDS -
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