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A new committee has been set up to advise on matters relating to the selection and admission of tenants for the offices to be provided in the Cyberport.
The Committee on Admission of Cyberport Office Tenants (CACOT) will be chaired by Mrs Carrie Yau, Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, in her capacity as a Director of the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited.
It comprises one Local Member who is Professor Charles Kao. It also comprises three International Members. They are Dr Jeremy Fairbrother from the United Kingdom; Professor John O'Callaghan from Australia; and Professor Victor Zue from the United States.
Mr Anthony Wong, Director-General of Telecommunications, and Mr K H Lau, Director of Information Technology Services, will serve on the Committee as Technical Members.
Those companies which have signed Letters of Intent to become anchor tenants and some other multinational companies which have expressed interest in the Cyberport project have been invited to nominate their senior executives as Industry Members. A nomination has been received from each of the following 20 companies: Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Hikari Tsushin, Hua Wei, IBM, Legend, Microsoft, Oracle, PCCW, Portal, Silicon Graphics, Sybase, Yahoo!, Adobe, Compaq, GE International, Intel, Motorola, Nokia and Nortel. Most of the Industry Members are Hong Kong-based IT executives.
Industry Members will provide advice on an "as required" basis. Normally two Industry Members will be invited to join a CACOT meeting for discussions on general issues. Individual Industry Members may also be invited to comment on the merits of individual applications.
The Committee will be serviced by the Cyberport Division of the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau.
The terms of reference of this new Committee are to advise the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited on matters relating to the selection and admission of tenants for the offices to be provided in the Cyberport. It is expected to have its first meeting shortly.
"The Cyberport is an important infrastructure being developed at the Telegraph Bay, Pokfulam," a spokesman for the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau said. "The title to the land earmarked for the development of the Cyberport is vested in the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited. This is a company limited wholly owned by the Hong Kong Cyberport Development Holdings Limited which is in turn wholly owned by the Financial Secretary Incorporated (FSI).
The Cyberport works have been making good progress since the project commenced in May last year. It will open in phases between early 2002 and end 2003.
The Cyberport will be serviced by a state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure, supported by offices and accommodation of a world class standard, and situated within a pleasant campus-like environment. It will provide office space for quality companies; a cyber centre providing retail, entertainment and educational facilities to interface with the public; a hotel; and quality housing to accommodate the professionals working at the Cyberport. These premises will be leased out and the rental income will belong to the FSI-owned Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited.
The spokesman stressed that the Cyberport would create a cluster of companies specialising in applications of information technology, information services and multimedia content creation. It is expected to accommodate about 150-200 companies of varying size. Office tenants will be selected through the FSI-owned Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, acting on the advice of the new CACOT.
"To date, more than 270 companies have registered interest in becoming office tenants. Fifteen of them (such as Cisco, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Yahoo! etc) have signed Letters of Intent to become anchor tenants," the spokesman added.
Brief biographies of the Local and International Members are as follows:
Professor Charles K Kao
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Professor Kao is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ITX Services Limited. He was the Vice-Chancellor of The Chinese University of Hong Kong from 1987 to 1996. Recognized internationally as the "Father of Fiber Optics", Professor Kao currently serves on the Council of Advisors on Innovation and Technology, the Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee, and the Board of the Provisional Hong Kong Science Park Company Limited.
Dr Jeremy Fairbrother
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Dr Fairbrother has been Senior Bursar of Trinity College, Cambridge since 1993 and part of his responsibility is to head the Cambridge Science Park. Prior to this appointment, he was a director of Baring Brothers & Company Limited. He is a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers and is non-executive director of Abbey National Treasury Services Plc and Cadcentre Plc. He is also a Trustee of the Newton Trust in Cambridge and chairs several University committees.
Professor John F O'Callaghan
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Professor O'Callaghan is the Executive Director of Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing, Professor of the Australian National University, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and CSIRO Fellow. His major interest is in the areas of interactive media, virtual environments, high-performance computing systems and commercialization and business development in Information Technology. He was awarded the 1990 Eminent Individual Award by the Australasian Urban and Regional Information Systems Association.
Professor Victor Zue
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Professor Zue is the Associate Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Laboratory for Computer Science, Head of its Spoken Language Systems Group, and a Senior Research Scientist at MIT. He is a pioneer in speech-based computer interfaces and is the first holder of the Delta Electronics Chair endowed for senior researchers. A recent Business Week article described him as one of the five "trailblazers" in speech interfaces worldwide.
End/Friday, March 16, 2001
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