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Following is the opening statement (English only) delivered by the Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, Mrs Carrie Yau, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, today(January 27):

Chairman, distinguished panelists, ladies and gentlemen,

Today's discussion poses some interesting and important questions. In essence, we are asked if the Internet will transform the relationship between government and its citizens and even change the nature of government itself.

From a Hong Kong prospective, I can confidently answer in the affirmative to the first, but I am much less certain of the answer to the second. I think the starting point must be how you view the nature of government? That's a fairly straightforward issue as far as the government in Hong Kong is concerned.

Given our historical circumstances and our constitutional arrangements, our basic aim is to discharge our obligations to our citizens in a way that is as open and transparent as possible, and which is seen by them as being responsive to their expectations and aspirations. This is easier said than done. It requires judgement, political sensitivity and a deep and sympathetic understanding of the community in which we all live. You can't download these essential ingredients from the Internet.

My point is that the Internet, indeed the whole e-revolution, must be seen as a tool to improve governance. It cannot be a substitute for good government, nor a panacea for bad government.

Hong Kong is a free, plural, open and often argumentative society based on the rule of law. Our home is a small place, with just under 7 million people living in 1100 square kilometres. So we have roughly the same population as Switzerland crammed into a 40th of the space. We have some of the highest urban population densities on earth. The lines of communication between people and between the government and people are therefore pretty short. That gives us an advantage that may not be found in other communities.

What we have recognized, and what we are leveraging, is the ability of the Internet to improve the delivery of our services to the public - and after all, is that not at the core of what governments are suppose to do? But we also recognise it as another and more sophisticated channel of communication between the administration and a community which has ever-growing demands fuelled by increasing affluence and the global communications revolution which has put so much knowledge and information at their disposal with the click of a mouse.

On a practical level, we have completed our own internal government e-communications system. For the public, we have an Electronic Service Delivery Scheme which enables our citizens to do everything from renewing a driver's licence to reserving a wedding date. They can do this on line 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We have organized this in a typically Hong Kong way by forming a partnership with the private sector to develop and operate the system for us, so that it deals not just with public services but has an e-commerce facility as well.

More importantly, we want to empower more of our citizens to become e-savvy. We have installed PCs in local government offices and community centres. We have established a chain of street-side e-kiosks for free public use. We want to give access to the new world which has been opened up by the Internet to the elderly, the less well-off, women who choose to stay at home, indeed anyone who cannot privately surf the world wide web.

This not only broadens the scope and scale of service delivery, but means that both government and governed have enhanced two-way communications. That puts more pressure on public servants, but it can only be good for a government, so long as it is prepared to listen and take its decisions on the basis of a clear understanding of public views and requirements, a sensible balancing of the options within a framework of responsible public policy formulation, and a commitment to explain itself, especially when the community is skeptical or even hostile.

So the message from Hong Kong is this: for us, the fundamentals of good governance remain the same. But the Internet will, and has already changed the dynamics between government and citizens. The challenge for government and citizens is to harness the enormous power and potential of the Internet for the betterment of society.

Thank you very much.

End/Saturday, January 27, 2001

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