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Following is the speech by the Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Lau Kam-hung, at the "Tripartite Forum on the Commercialisation of IT Research Results" this morning (Tuesday):

Mrs Chiu, Mr Au, Professors, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning! Welcome to this Tripartite Forum on the Commercialisation of IT Research Results.

In the knowledge-based world of the 21st century, the competitiveness of an economy will be determined mainly by its ability to develop and exploit technology. Government has a role to play in facilitating the development of advanced technologies, and in promoting their use by the industry, business, and the community.

To play this role of a facilitator and promoter, Government is financing technology development projects and researches undertaken by the academia as well as the industry and business sectors through funding schemes such as the Industrial Support Fund and the Applied Research Fund.

Given the increasing competition we are facing in the knowledge-based world, we should strengthen the technology base of Hong Kong. To this end, one of the initiatives under the Digital 21 IT Strategy of the HKSAR Government is to facilitate the collaboration between academia and industry through which the former can more readily and effectively transform the fruits of their research into technologies for eventual application by the latter.

The Chief Executive's Commission on Innovation and Technology has also recommended that we should foster university-industry collaboration in technology transfer and commercialisation of research results in leading-edge technologies. These can be achieved through various means and this forum is one.

In formulating today's event, we have taken similar forums in other places as our reference. We notice that while technology is of paramount importance, the success of the future enterprise depends on making the right connection with capital as well as attracting a top-flight executive team. The Hong Kong business environment may be different from other places, but one thing holds true anywhere is that connecting the right technology to the right people will generate the momentum of success. That exactly is what we intend to do here today. From this perspective, this forum is a timely head start in the right direction.

This event would not have been possible without the support of many other people and organisations. They include Mrs. Patricia Chiu of the Hong Kong Venture Capital Association Limited, Mr. Anthony Au of the Hong Kong IT Federation, and the department heads of the computer science departments of six of our universities. To all of them, I give my sincere thanks.

With distinguished practitioners and researchers like you gathering here, I hope that the sparkling of ideas will ultimately bring about commercial projects and future enterprises. If this cannot be worked out in one morning, this forum, at least, will show that Hong Kong is not lack of ideas and talents. How we make the best use of our intellectual resources would be up to our adventurism, foresight, and continuous collaboration in uncovering our IT research results. I am sure that we are well prepared for that.

With this, I declare the event open, and invite all of you to enjoy the presentations on the IT research results.

Thank you.

END/Tuesday, June 29, 1999

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