Opening Speech by Mr. Tony Wong, JP, Deputy Government Chief Information Officer, at the “Project Management Institute (PMI) Hong Kong Asia Pacific 2020 Project Management Congress Virtual Conference” (with photo)

Christine, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning! It is my honour to join this year’s Congress to connect with so many elite project managers and industry leaders to exchange insights on this very timely and meaningful theme, “Road to Recovery, The Way Forward”.

Being professionals in project management, we all understand how difficult it is to manage a project when circumstances are changing rapidly and risk factors unpredictable. This year, combating the COVID-19 pandemic has become the biggest ever and most imminent project for the whole world. In fighting against the virus, we have to act with speed and agility. As a member of the management team of my Office, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, I have personally witnessed many such urgent and mission critical IT projects implemented successfully in the past months. During implementation of these projects, we continuously reviewed and enhanced the technical solutions in order to respond swiftly and flexibly to the rapidly changing pandemic situation. I must say that their smooth implementation is an excellent piece of work resulted from effective project management. Let me illustrate some of the good project management elements that we have applied in these projects.

Back in the Chinese New Year this year, we were tasked to utilise information technology to facilitate the Government’s implementation of compulsory home quarantine under a very tight schedule. At that time, no suitable technology solutions were readily available in the market. We therefore employed a very important project management skill, “team building”, to address the issue. We quickly partnered with the Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre (LSCM), a Government funded R&D centre, and together we developed a local solution using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, which required each returnee to wear an electronic wristband working in pair with a mobile phone on loan by the Government.

Talking about the electronic wristbands that were used in this solution, although the LSCM experts developed the first prototype within just 2 days, we however had to face another critical project implementation issue. Nearly all production lines in Hong Kong and the Mainland were closed during the Chinese New Year holidays and worse still, these production lines had to halt subsequently due to lockdown in many Mainland cities. To overcome this challenge, LSCM quickly responded by assembling the first 500 wristbands using their own manpower resources and limited supplies of the raw materials available locally. This illustrates how important it is to be able to deploy the resources flexibly and effectively in order to cope with unforeseen challenges.

Later on, with the increasing number of returnees from overseas starting in mid-March during the second wave of the epidemic, we had to apply another crucial project management element, “time management”, to address the challenge of handling such large influx of home confinees within a very short time. Partnered with Compathnion, a Science Park tech startup, and by virtue of the research support from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, we launched the “StayHomeSafe” mobile app. It took only two weeks’ time to go through the process from design, programming, testing, to pilot use on the field. Our ability to timely develop this mobile app allowed us to effectively monitor the home quarantine of the large number of overseas arrivals, up to 6000 a day, to help contain the spread of the COVID-19 during the second wave. More than 20 economies have found this solution impressive and approached us for technology and experience sharing. We also received a request from a renowned Museum of Communication in Frankfurt to display our electronic wristbands in their exhibition as a success story in technology adoption to fight against COVID-19. Our joint efforts with our local R&D and tech partners have certainly paid off and fully delivered our project objectives.

Nevertheless, challenges are yet over. The electronic wristbands could not be mass manufactured overnight to cope with the upsurge in demand since mid-March. We again, used our problem solving skills by adopting the innovative use of a paper-based QR code strap as a stopgap measure for the returnees at the Airport. Although it replaced the automatic Bluetooth detection by manual QR code scanning, it still served the purpose of ensuring that the confinees stay within the dwelling places through geo-fencing technology. Subsequently, we further introduced a light-weight and disposable electronic wristband for returnees at the boundary control points from late March onwards.

Apart from the home quarantine solution, the Universal Community Testing Programme (UCTP) was another challenging IT plus logistics mission that we and LSCM successfully delivered in collaboration. Through effective project management, we developed an online appointment booking system for citizens to make appointment in an orderly manner, a registration system for speedy registration at the community testing centres (CTCs) to avoid crowd gathering, and an advanced delivery tracking system using Bluetooth and geo-fencing technologies to trace the operation status of delivery vehicles, the movement of specimen collection boxes and the specimen bottle inventories in CTCs, laboratories and warehouses. We also set up a command centre and developed dashboards to monitor the overall operation of the UCTP and timely resolve all technical, logistics and operational issues reported by individual CTCs. The UCTP was an unprecedented project. Through innovative use of technologies, excellent team work and just-in-time operations, we accomplished this impossible mission within a very tight schedule. We also achieved the delivery of specimen bottles within 1.5 hours twice a day from over 140 CTCs to the laboratories, no loss of collection boxes, and continuous supply of empty tubes and collection boxes to all CTCs until the last day. The UCTP successfully completed the COVID-19 testing for over 1.7 million Hong Kong citizens in just two weeks.

Our office has also recently launched the "LeaveHomeSafe" mobile app which aims to encourage the public to keep a more precise record for their whereabouts, hence mininising the risk of further transmission of the virus and protect Hong Kong together. Again, we effectively managed the project, racing against time while trying our very best to deliver an application that is easy to use, preserves personal privacy and fully delivers the ultimate project objective of combating the epidemic all at the same time.

Having undergone the epidemic, our citizens now have higher expectations on the digital government acceleration and smart city development. We will soon release the Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint 2.0 to report the progress of existing initiatives and set out new proposals for building Hong Kong into an even smarter city.

We will also launch the “iAM Smart” platform for all our citizens, allowing them to use a single digital identity for authentication and conducting online transactions. Initially, over 20 commonly used online government services covering public rental housing, driving licence and employment services can be accessed through the platform, and the number of services accessible will further extend to more than 110 by mid-2021. With the rapid development of the Internet economy and smart city over these few years, we expect that “iAM Smart” together with other technologies will transform the way people live and work. We will further promote the platform to public and private organisations, such as Hospital Authority, Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, banks, lT companies as well as our small and medium enterprises, encouraging them to adopt it in their online services, to provide further convenient to our citizens in using both government and commercial e-services through a single digital identity.

We will continue to fight this virus with concerted efforts and take proactive measures to restore the economy. Let’s navigate through the hard times and build an even stronger and smarter Hong Kong together.

I wish the Congress every success, and all of you a rewarding experience in the Congress. Thank you!

- ENDS -