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10-04-2018

Speech by Ir. Allen Yeung, JP, Government Chief Information Officer, at the “Asia-Pacific Business Forum 2018”


Hongjoo (Deputy Executive Secretary for Programmes, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Dr Hongjoo Hahm), George (Chairman, Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company, Dr Lee George Lam), distinguished speakers, guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon. It is my great pleasure to join you at this year’s Asia-Pacific Business Forum, the flagship regional business forum, jointly organised by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Cyberport, in Hong Kong. I am sure that you have fruitful sharing and discussion on how to achieve sustainable development goals through technology, innovation and financing today.

Digital globalization technologies, such as big data analytics, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, etc., and the associated monetisation of these technologies, have transformed the landscape of the global economy. This transformation creates soaring flows of data, which underpin and innovate the values of the movement of goods, services, finance, and people. Data is poised to be the new currency in a digital economy and a new fuel to innovation. Data centres are the essential infrastructure to support the sustainable development goals. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s unique combination of advantages, help making our city as a prime location for setting up data centres in the region, and as a data hub for doing business.

The demand for data centre services, especially high-tier data centres, is driven by this trend of the increasing use of Internet business and innovative technologies. According to Cisco, the global cloud workloads will be nearly triple from 2016 to 2021, and the global cloud traffic will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 27% over the same period. The fast-developing cloud computing technology drives the development of data centres. Cloud service providers need data centres to house cloud services and cloud-based resources. In the Cloud Readiness Index 2016, Hong Kong ranked first in cloud readiness in the Asia Pacific. This puts Hong Kong in a strong position to lead the next wave of global innovation and leadership in technology.

In our increasing interconnected world, cross-border flow of digital information become more and more important to economic development and opportunity. Data-fueled technologies will be an essential driver for innovation, productivity gains, and economic growth. Multinational corporations are going for high-speed data transmission and processing platform across borders.

In connecting Hong Kong to the world, we have 11 submarine cable systems with about 58 terabits per second equipped capacity. In the coming years, the connectivity will be further increased by more submarine cable systems to be commissioned. The new systems including two new high capacity submarine cable systems to build by Facebook, the Pacific Light Cable Network connecting Hong Kong and Los Angeles, and the Hong Kong-Americas linking Hong Kong and California. Also, there will be another new system connecting Hong Kong and Guam.

On top of our sophisticated ICT infrastructure, leveraging our unique advantages under “one country, two systems”, sound legal system, pro-business environment, robust enforcement for data protection and privacy, as well as free flow of talent and information, make Hong Kong the trusted gateway to the Mainland China. Furthermore, with the fully liberalised regime and highly reliable electricity supply, Hong Kong is well positioned to be the prime location of a neutral global data hub for cross-border data flows between East and West. Aggregating international data could enhance the development of big data and digital economy, as well as improving the operation efficiencies and strengths of companies in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is home to about 3 800 regional headquarters and offices of the world’s leading multinational corporations. And our position as an international financial and commercial centre naturally attracts significant international data flows. Here, Cyberport alone has attracted over 250 FinTech start-ups in the last couple of years. In addition, many ICT giants are expanding their businesses in Hong Kong to serve the world, say the Amazon (AWS service) to build its regional data centre hub in Hong Kong and Google to launch its cloud platform in Hong Kong later this year.

To conclude, innovation and technology is undoubtedly an economic driver in the new era. Innovation and technology can introduce new industries and create wealth, drive economic transformation, bring quality jobs for young people and improve people's quality of life. In the 2018-19 Budget announced in February, the Financial Secretary has unprecedentedly allocated more than $50 billion to further speed up the development of innovation and technology in Hong Kong, through investing in infrastructure development, research and development collaboration, nurturing start-ups and promoting industries. It provides the timely, critical and significant resources for accelerating Hong Kong's innovation and technology development. In addition to its vital catalytic effect, the sizeable financial commitment demonstrates the Government's commitment and determination in innovation and technology development.

Innovation and technology have transformed our business and economy. In order to keep our business community abreast of the latest trend and impact, my Office has launched our annual flagship event the Internet Economy Summit for the first time in 2016 to provide a platform that brings together top-notch experts from around the world to share their inspirational insights on how today’s businesses can harness the internet-led growth in the new economy. The next edition will be held on the coming Thursday and Friday (12-13 April 2018) in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Please mark your diary and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

I look forward to the robust co-operation in public and private sectors in light of the growing role of the digital economy. I wish you all enjoy the day.

- ENDS -