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Hong Kong will see an ultra-modern intelligent building complex, equipped with state-of-the-art telecommunication and information backbone to meet the needs of leading multi-national and local information services companies, rising on the horizon in the Southern District on Hong Kong Island in three years' time.
The $13 billion project, known as the Cyberport, was announced by the Financial Secretary in his Budget speech today (Wednesday).
A spokesman for the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau said the Government proposes to develop the Cyberport in partnership with the Pacific Century Group (PCG), one of the leaders in developing interactive information services.
Eight multi-national companies have, through the efforts of PCG, signed letters of intent to become anchor tenants at the Cyberport. They include Hewlett-Packard, Hua Wei, IBM, Oracle, Pacific Convergence Corporation (a joint venture between the Pacific Century Group and Intel), Softbank, Sybase, and Yahoo!.
The Cyberport will be built on 26 hectares of land with open sea view in Telegraph Bay, Pok Fu Lam, which is in close proximity to the proposed Teleport in Chung Hom Kok and thus form a strategic telecommunication node.
Two-thirds of the site will be for Cyberport development and the rest will be high class residential development, the proceeds from which will drive the development of the Cyberport.
The Cyberport will be a strategic cluster of information technology and services companies situated in a world-class setting. It will provide the infrastructure and a quality working and living environment for companies applying the latest information technology in the multi-media, and content creation fields, e.g. film production, 3-D graphics and animation, as well as in the development of software applications and provision of services.
In particular, it will provide a range of shared facilities for tenants, including a multi-media based network, telecommunication links, media laboratory, cyber library and other information technology and services support facilities. There will also be educational, entertainment and recreational facilities related to information technology and services for local visitors and tourists.
"The Government will provide the site as its equity contribution while PCG will make a capital contribution of about $7 billion to the whole development," the spokesman said.
"Also, before any surplus from the sale of the residential development is shared, $200 million will be put into a Development Fund for the maintenance and refurbishment of the Cyberport," he added.
The Cyberport which is expected to bring tremendous economic benefits, can accommodate over 30 large to medium sized companies (100-500 employees) and about 100 smaller companies (less than 50 employees). "We would like to focus on companies which apply the most advanced information technology and only the leading-edge companies would be admitted into the Cyberport," the spokesman said.
He expected that overseas and local talents would be greatly attracted by the working opportunities in the Cyberport which would create 12,000 jobs at full operation. Also, some 4,000 jobs in the construction industry would be created during the construction period.
End/Wednesday, March 3, 1999
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