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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, Mrs Carrie Yau, at the Opening Ceremony of "E-World" today (June 5):
Mr Lo, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to be here today to speak at the Opening Ceremony of "E-World". The Government is committed to promoting the development and adoption of e-business in Hong Kong. We fully support events like the "E-world" which provide a forum to showcase latest IT and e-business solutions.
In the past few years, we have witnessed rapid development in e-business globally. The emergence of e-business has become a major driving force for economic growth and has completely transformed how businesses operate. Hong Kong has been recognised internationally as one of the places with the best potential to develop e-business. The London-based Economist Intelligence Unit has recently ranked our e-business readiness amongst the group of "e-business leaders" in the world. Forrester Research has forecast that Hong Kong will be among the lead group of economies in the Asia Pacific region to register e-business hypergrowth. The value of e-business transactions in Hong Kong is expected to grow from US$2 billion in 2000 to US$70 billion in 2004.
There is, however, no room for complacency. We should adopt visionary strategies to create a favourable environment for e-business to flourish or our competitiveness in the international arena would be compromised. We promulgated our first Digital 21 IT Strategy in November 1998. One of its objectives was to build the necessary information infrastructure for e-business to flourish. Under the strategy, we have -
* fully liberalised our telecommunications market which leads to the development of a world class telecommunications infrastructure, with competitive services and prices;
* enacted the Electronic Transactions Ordinance to provide the necessary legal framework for electronic transactions;
* established a local public key infrastructure for the conduct of secure electronic transactions;
* introduced the Electronic Service Delivery Scheme to provide Government services online so as to set a good example for the private sector to follow in the adoption of e-business; and
* cultivated a community that welcomes the use of IT.
These achievements are also marked by a strong record of technology deployment and adoption in Hong Kong. We now have one of the world's highest mobile penetration rates at 80 per cent. We have excellent broadband connection covering practically all commercial buildings and over 95 per cent of households. Our external connectivity at 44 Gbps, which is amongst the highest in Asia, will increase by 10-fold in the next two to three years. We also have high personal computer penetration, at 50 per cent, and Internet penetration, at 36 per cent.
While we have established a world class information infrastructure for e-business to develop, the next step will be to capitalise on this early success and strive to position Hong Kong as a leading e-business community and premier digital city in the globally connected world. This is the goal of our 2001 Digital 21 Strategy just promulgated last month.
Based on this objective, the 2001 Digital 21 Strategy has identified five new key result areas that we need to focus in order to improve Hong Kong's overall competitiveness. Of these two areas are of particular interest -
* to enhance our e-business environment; and
* to build electronic government;
Focusing on enhancing the e-business environment in Hong Kong, we will review the Electronic Transactions Ordinance later on in the year and issue 3G mobile communications licences in September; open Cyberport, our flagship IT infrastructural project, in phases between early 2002 and end 2003; drive the adoption of e-business in the private sector, especially small and medium size enterprises; help position our IT and telecommunications sectors for China's access to the World Trade Organisation by enhancing exchange between the industries of the Mainland and Hong Kong.
Through the development of E-government, we shall take the lead in adopting e-business thus setting a good example for the private sector to follow. For example under our G2B initiatives, we will actively drive e-procurement initiatives and the development of an electronic marketplace for Government purchases. We have introduced one of the world's first Electronic Tendering System which allows us to issue tenders and receive bids securely through the Internet. To drive us forward, we have also set the target to carry out 80 per cent of Government procurement tenders through electronic means by end 2003. We are also outsourcing each year over two-thirds of new Government IT projects and have started to outsource also application maintenance work. As a major user and buyer, we will be able to stimulate and drive our business partners and suppliers to adopt e-business. To know more of the 2001 Digital 21 Strategy, I encourage you to study our strategy booklet or browse the web site of the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau.
Ladies and Gentlemen, with the implementation of the Digital 21 Strategy, e-business will prosper and flourish in Hong Kong. There will be a substantial increase in the demand of high quality IT and e-business solutions in the market to support this development, and a lot more business opportunities in the IT field will emerge. I am sure that "E-world" will showcase these high quality solutions. And I wish you all gain useful insights through taking part in this meaningful event.
Thank you.
END/Tuesday, June 5, 2001
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