Press Release

 

 

Speech by Director of Information Technology Services (English only)

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Following is the full text of the speech delivered by the Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Lau Kam-hung, in the Country Seminar - Korea of the Information Infrastructure Expo and Conference 2001 today (February 23):

Mr Rho, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me first extend a warm welcome to Mr Rho and members of the Korean business delegation. It is encouraging to see so many leading edge Korean companies participating in this year's Hong Kong Information Infrastructure Expo to showcase your technological capabilities in the information technology and telecommunications fields. I am honoured and delighted to have the opportunity to address such a distinguished audience today.

If you have already had a chance to tour round the Expo to look at some of the creative and inspiring demonstrations of the application of advanced technologies, I am sure you will agree with me that information and telecommunications technologies are helping us to shape our future in ways that are only limited by our imagination. They are also going to be providing the impetus and catalyst for our economic growth and social well-being in the Information Age.

For information and telecommunications technologies to flourish in the community, governments have a key role to play. In Hong Kong, the Government launched the "Digital 21" IT Strategy in November 1998 which set our vision to make Hong Kong a leading digital city in the globally connected world in the 21st century. After two years of intense implementation work, we have made significant and pleasing achievements:

- We have progressively liberalised our telecommunications market resulting in a world-class telecommunications infrastructure and an open and competitive market in terms of service and price. We now have full broadband coverage for all our commercial buildings and over 90 per cent of households. While our external connectivity is amongst the highest in Asia, substantial additional investments by the telecommunications sector to the tune of HK$13 billion, or some US$1.7 billion, are going to be made to our telecommunications infrastructure in the next few years. Our mobile phone penetration level of over 75 per cent is one of the highest in the world;

- Half of our households have a computer installed and more than one third of our population are Internet users;

- At present, more than 6.8 million smart e-payment cards, roughly one for every resident in Hong Kong, are in use for public transport and other financial transactions;

- We have established our legislative framework for e-commerce to flourish in Hong Kong, through the Electronic Transactions Ordinance enacted early last year. We have also set up a robust local Public Key Infrastructure through the establishment of recognised certification authorities for the conduct of safe and secure electronic transactions;

- Recently, we have launched the Electronic Service Delivery Scheme, through which the Government provides on-line services to the public on a round-the-clock basis. We also launched the Electronic Tendering System last year, which is one of the world's first web-based government procurement systems. This has set a good example to our private sector in the adoption of e-commerce; and

- To raise the awareness of information technology among various community groups and members of the public, we have organised large-scale promotion and training programmes and have set up the necessary facilities for them.

To further capitalise on the rapid technological advances and international best practices in the adoption of IT and telecommunications, we will launch a revised "Digital 21" IT Strategy in the next few months. The aim is to promote further development of information technology and e-commerce and to further strengthen Hong Kong's position as a leading digital city. Our new strategy will focus on:

- Further developing and strengthening our world-class environment for e-commerce to grow and flourish;

- Building an e-Government;

- Strengthening our IT workforce;

- Exploiting advanced and enabling technologies to benefit our business and community; and

- Implementing positive measures to avoid the emergence of "digital divide".

We firmly believe that, apart from having a world-class infrastructure which supports our social and economic activities, maintaining a business-friendly environment is going to be a major factor for success. Our first-class business environment is our greatest strength in promoting the development of information technology and telecommunications, for example, in e-commerce. Hong Kong prides itself in being rated the world's freest economy year on year. We have a level playing field for business, an independent judiciary, an open and accountable government, a clean civil service and a duty-free port. We have no controls on capital flows through Hong Kong, no tariffs, no trade barriers and no controls on the flow of news information and ideas for innovation. With the imminent accession of China into the World Trade Organisation, Hong Kong is very well positioned to benefit from the huge business opportunities ahead. Hong Kong is in fact one of the best places in Asia for doing business.

In the world of interconnectivity and extended enterprises, international co-operation will be of great importance in many of our new endeavours. Hong Kong has developed and will further develop a network of co-operation with countries and economies which are advanced in the information technology and telecommunications fields. So far, Hong Kong has entered into such bilateral collaborative arrangements with six countries, namely, Australia, Canada, Finland, India, Israel and the United Kingdom. These arrangements are not restricted to the respective governments, but also include business, academia and professional bodies in Hong Kong and the signatory countries.

In building Hong Kong into a leading digital city, we are expecting substantial growth in demand for high quality information technology and telecommunications solutions, products and services to support this development. I am confident that you will find excellent and rewarding opportunities for doing business in Hong Kong, either by yourselves or through partnerships and strategic alliances with quality companies here. Hong Kong looks forward to partnering with you to jointly exploit the opportunities in the Information Age.

I wish you all a most interesting and fruitful discussion. And to our overseas guests, I wish you a very enjoyable stay in Hong Kong.

Thank you.

End/Friday, February 23, 2001

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