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Following is the opening remarks (English only) made by the Financial Secretary, Mr Donald Tsang, at the Seminar on the Cyberport today (Wednesday):
Ladies and Gentlemen,
When the Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting asked me to give opening remarks at a seminar on the Cyberport, I thought I would be addressing an audience of about one or two hundred. To see so many of you here today, to say the least, thrills me no end. Clearly we are all excited about the Cyberport project and would like to take part in this enterprise. Full marks to K C and his team and their counterparts for all their efforts in taking this project efficiently forward.
There has been quite a lot of discussion about the project since I announced it two weeks ago. The idea of a Cyberport has generated considerable support here at home and overseas. This positive response re-affirms our conviction that we have adopted the right approach. I am very glad that so many of the world's great names on the IT front have indicated their interest in participating in this project. By creating a strategic cluster of leading information technology and services companies at the Cyberport, we hope to strengthen and broaden the base of our economy, in response to a growing market standard. Not only will our IT sector get an important boost, the high quality, high value-added services to be generated at the Cyberport will benefit our traditional disciplines as well by enhancing their efficiency, capacity, and competitiveness. The Cyberport will indeed be part of the SAR's modern infrastructure.
I need not stress that for the Cyberport to succeed, we need a critical mass of top-class talents from leading IT companies. There will be residential development to help the financing of the project. But it is wrong, very wrong, to say that the Cyberport is a property development. There is no question whatsoever on my mind of the developer making a quick return on the residential portion. The profits from the Cyberport, including those from the property element, will first be ploughed back to develop the project. Only when the full cost is met, and after $200 million is channelled to a development fund , will profits be shared between the Government and the developer. We believe that only companies with a very strong IT background can meet fully the Cyberport requirement and can help market the Cyberport to our target tenants.
Our Cyberport will be an important flagship project for placing Hong Kong on the world map as an international information technology and services centre. Sure enough, competition will be stiff. But we have our comparative advantages. We have a clear policy to promote the development of information technology. We have an extremely business friendly environment and a robust and open legal system. Our taxes and social costs for doing business are among the lowest in the world. Our law and order condition is second to none. Our public service is clean and efficient. Our intellectual property rights regime is one of the best in the region, and we have possibly the most advanced and extensive high capacity communications infrastructure. Most important, Hong Kong people are enterprising and creative. Here is our forte. No matter how advanced the hardware, you need creative people to produce the software, to come up with innovative and comprehensive solutions to problems, old and new, and to create new assets which are attractive and profitable. And we have the people to do all this.
I am pleased that the private sector, and not the Government, is spearheading this project. Whatever the private sector can do, and can do better, the Government must not take over. The Government's role is to ensure that the best environment is provided to enable business to develop. In this case, we believe overseas companies will be attracted to this comprehensive development which will have the most advanced telecommunications and information backbone, and all the necessary facilities and a high quality living environment to attract the world's best professionals to work in Hong Kong. For local companies, particularly the small and medium-sized ones, the Cyberport will provide shared facilities and services to assist you in your business helping you to rub shoulders with the best and brightest in the world today. K C will brief you on the details later on.
The Government will work to create the best possible environment for you and your business to flourish. But the Government will never pretend to be a businessman, competing with you, pricing you out of the market or dictating terms of business. We are there to help you to lead. I hope that the developer, anchor tenants as well as experts in the information technology and services sector will work together to create a first class enterprise here. We will build the Cyberport to the highest quality. We will ensure that it will provide the most modern and efficient support service for companies and people who apply the latest technology in the IT field. The rest is up to you. I hope you have a very productive and fruitful seminar. Thank you.
End/Wednesday, March 17, 1999
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