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Following is the full text of a speech delivered by the Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, Mr K C Kwong, at the opening ceremony of the Xiangshan Scientific Symposium on Telescience and Robotics this (Thursday) morning :

Professor Li, Professor Zhang, Professor Xu, ladies and gentlemen,

It is my great honour to be invited to the Xiangshan Scientific Symposium on Telescience and Robotics to address an audience of distinguished scientists from all over the world.

I think all of you here will know better than I do the impact science and technology has had on us and how it is helping to shape the world of tomorrow. Indeed, science and technology is such a powerful agent for change that the state of its development and application in a place is often used as the benchmark for measuring the competitiveness and potential for growth of that place. Looking back in history, we can easily see that that sort of benchmarking is not inappropriate as the rise and fall of economies and even nations were often closely linked with the development and application of science and technology.

We in the HKSAR Government recognise the power of science and technology, and the need to maximise the benefits which they can bring. In his recent Policy Address, our Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, has stated his firm belief that innovation and technology are important drivers of continued economic growth in Hong Kong.

Science and technology also play an important role in enhancing our personal pursuits of excellence and in improving our quality of life in general. Taking information technology as an example, the wide adoption of digital technology in recent years has led to the emergence of a new digital world - a world which is free from the traditional constraints of physical distance and time, a world where one can communicate with others at the opposite hemisphere with great speed and ease, and a world where markets have become one and where goods and services can be ordered from anywhere anytime.

Advances in science and technology can bring a lot of benefits and opportunities. The question is how can we effectively seize the opportunities and reap the benefits by transforming innovative ideas and inventions into generic technologies for eventual application by industry and by the community.

The Chief Executive's Commission on Innovation and Technology has provided an answer to this. In its recently published first report, the Commission has highlighted the importance of fostering university-industry collaboration in technology transfer and commercialisation of results of researches in leading-edge technologies. This echoes one of the objectives of this symposium, which is to promote technology transfer from academia to industry. This is exactly what the HKSAR Government is planning to do.

In order to maintain our competitiveness in the world of tomorrow, and to make the best use of rapid technological advances, we need the participation of our universities because they are the cradles of technological innovations and advances. We need also to foster a better understanding within the industry of the resources available in the universities and, at the same time, enhance the universities' awareness of the needs in the industry. These can be achieved through such means as publication and dissemination of research reports, organisation of conferences and exhibitions to promote the research results, and regular meetings between the industry and academia to discuss areas of collaboration. On the Government side, we shall do what we can to strengthen collaboration between the industry, and at the same time, explore ways to stimulate greater interest in conducting commercially relevant researches in the universities.

The collaboration between industry and academia to which I refer is not just limited within Hong Kong. The rich technological resources in the Mainland of China also offer an important source of innovations and technologies. And we must do all we can to tap into those rich resources as well. To enhance technological collaboration between Hong Kong and the Mainland of China, the Commission on Innovation and Technology has proposed to establish a comprehensive electronic database of technological resources in the Mainland, with a view to facilitating technology transfer between the Mainland and Hong Kong as well as between the Mainland and the rest of the world.

This Symposium provides an ideal forum for exchange of visions, views and research results among scientists. Your discussions and suggestions made in the Symposium will certainly help promote technological development, and provide valuable reference for the formulation of policies in this area.

As distinguished scientists, all of you play a pioneering role in leading the world to progress. I am sure that, through your participation in the Symposium today, you will contribute towards promoting technology transfer between academia and industry, as well as between the Mainland, Hong Kong and the rest of the world.

Thank you.

End/Thursday, November 12, 1998

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