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25-04-2018

LCQ15: Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong


Following is a question by the Hon Jeremy Tam and a written reply by the Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Mr Nicholas W Yang, in the Legislative Council today (April 25):

Question:

The Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong (Blueprint), released in December 2017 by the Government, has proposed measures to promote the development of Hong Kong into a smart city, and made recommendations for development in respect of six major areas: smart mobility, smart living, smart environment, smart people, smart government and smart economy. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) given that, on smart government, the Blueprint has proposed to develop the Common Spatial Data Infrastructure (CSDI) by 2023 to facilitate the sharing of geo-spatial data across government departments and government-to-business (G2B) applications, and the relevant work includes the launch of a related portal, 3D digital maps and an electronic submission hub for building plans,

(i) of the respective budgeted expenditures for construction and management of the CSDI,
(ii) of the file format to be adopted for the 3D digital maps,
(iii) of the government departments responsible for such work, and
(iv) of the details of the G2B applications to be developed within the coming three years and the types of enterprises to be involved;

(2) given that, on smart mobility, the Blueprint has mentioned that the Government will continue to explore and formulate relevant initiatives to tie in with the technological and industrial developments in vehicle-to-everything and autonomous vehicles,

(i) whether it has plans to amend the relevant legislation and law enforcement procedure; if so, of the details; if not, the justifications for that;
(ii) whether it launched in the past three years, and whether it has plans to launch in the coming three years, relevant pilot schemes; if so, of the details; if not, the justifications for that; and
(iii) whether it has established a mechanism for reviewing if the initiatives concerned can catch up with the latest technological development; if so, of the details; if not, the justifications for that; and

(3) given that My Kowloon East (MyKE), a mobile application developed by the Government's Energizing Kowloon East Office and Lands Department with the aim to promote smart city initiatives and provides real-time traffic and pedestrian walking paths information of the Kowloon East district, has reportedly received a lukewarm response from the public since its launch in 2016 (only about 6 800 person-download-times recorded as at February this year, representing about 0.6% of the population in the district),

(i) of the expenditure incurred by the Government for developing MyKE,
(ii) of the number of times for which MyKE was updated so far, and the relevant dates of such updates,
(iii) of the number of active users of MyKE in each of the past three months,
(iv) of the annual expenditure on the maintenance/management of MyKE, and
(v) whether it has plans to incorporate, within the coming three years, information of other districts into MyKE; if so, of the implementation timetable, the names of the government departments and service contractors responsible for such work, the budgeted expenditure, and the estimated return on investment?

Reply:

President,

The Government published the Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong (Blueprint) in December 2017, mapping out the development plans in the next five years. Smart city involves different work areas. Relevant bureaux and departments will set out implementation timetables, as well as financial resources and manpower estimates for their initiatives.

Having consulted the Development Bureau (DEVB) and the Transport and Housing Bureau, my reply to Hon Tam's question is as follows:

(1) In March 2017, the DEVB commissioned a consultancy study on the overall strategy for the implementation of the Common Spatial Data Infrastructure (CSDI) to provide government departments initially, and public and private organisations in due course, an information infrastructure to share spatial data in support of various applications and the Smart City Blueprint promulgated by the Innovation and Technology Bureau. The scope of the CSDI consultancy includes, among other things, the proposed governance structure and implementation road map. Upon completion of the study, the DEVB will consider the implementation approach and work plan, with the aim of developing the CSDI gradually for full operation by the end of 2023. The consultancy study, at an estimated cost of $5 million, is targeted for completion in mid-2018. To foster information technology application as well as to facilitate alignment and integration of spatial data, the Lands Department (LandsD) will commission in mid-2018 a consultant to establish the data exchange standards for spatial data. The estimate of this project is about $4.5 million, and the LandsD targets to complete it in 2020.

The LandsD will continue to enhance the 3D spatial data and prepare the road map for 3D Digital Map. In addition, the Buildings Department is preparing relevant information for the development of a centralised electronic submission hub so that the industry can submit building plans and other related submissions of private development, while relevant government departments can process the submissions, through the system.

These works are currently undertaken by staff in the DEVB and other relevant bureaux/departments as part of their overall duties. There is no separate breakdown of the resources involved.

(2) The Transport Department (TD) will continue to study the development of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications as well as review the experience and regulatory framework in overseas jurisdictions in relation to autonomous vehicles (AV) and examine their applicability in Hong Kong. The preliminary study will recommend possible means to facilitate development and implementation of AV technology in Hong Kong. Findings of the study will help the TD consider suitable measures to facilitate trials in designated public areas and roads. After studying the latest overseas developments including experience related to vehicles, road safety as well as legislation and regulation, the TD will timely conduct a review of the Road Traffic Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation to facilitate the development and application of AV technology.

Meanwhile, the TD will continue to facilitate trials of AV technology at suitable locations in Hong Kong. The TD maintains close liaison with, and renders facilitation measures to, organisations which have expressed interest in setting up testing facilities for AV technology or conducting trials of AV. Each application for trial of AV is assessed on a case-by-case basis having regard to a number of factors, such as vehicle design and construction, vehicle testing and operation record in the past, competency of the testing team and test route conditions, etc.

Since June 2017, the TD has approved seven trials of AV technologies, involving four AV, at designated routes of the West Kowloon Cultural District, the Zero Carbon Building, the Hong Kong Science Park and the campus of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The Government expects that more organisations would submit applications for trials of AV on the roads in Hong Kong in future. The TD will assess the relevant applications and render assistance as far as practicable to ensure that the trials could be conducted in a safe and controllable manner.

(3) The My Kowloon East (MyKE) mobile app was launched by the Energizing Kowloon East Office (EKEO) of the DEVB to promote smart city initiatives in Kowloon East and to serve as an interactive platform for demonstrating the feasibility of real-time data sharing. The mobile app was developed by the EKEO in collaboration with the LandsD using existing resources with no additional expenses incurred so far. Since the launch of trial version in December 2016, the mobile app has been updated eight times with the dates as follows:

January 4, 2017
April 5, 2017
May 9, 2017
June 14, 2017
August 15, 2017
September 13, 2017
March 19, 2018
April 12, 2018

As at mid-April 2018, the download rate was about 7 400 and the number of active users has not been recorded.

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