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Following is a speech by the Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, Mrs Carrie Yau, at the Signing Ceremony for the Agreement of Cooperation between the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and WebEx Communications, Inc. today (May 27):

Professor Chu, Mr Zhu, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for inviting me to the signing ceremony today. This event marks an important development of multi-media and interactive communication technologies in Hong Kong. And I am very pleased to meet all the experts here. I am sure that there are a lot to share among ourselves today.

On the part of the Government, we take the lead to exploit information technology (IT) to share information and provide services to the community. Our businesses share information and do business with each other and with their clients online. Educational institutions have launched various cyber education programmes. As you will agree, knowledge management and sharing underpins economic growth and enables improvements in the quality of life.

Our hosts today are key contributors to this development. WebEx Communications provides web-based communication services that facilitate dynamic communication and interaction anytime anywhere. The convergence of different media and technologies enable us to share voice, video and data in real time. The use of innovative technologies of this kind enriches our experience of learning and sharing, and frees us from geographical and time zone barriers. And as we all know, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is a center of research in new technologies and contributes significantly to the sharing of knowledge in this aspect. The synergy of the two key players will no doubt bring a lot of fascinating developments in new media and communication technologies.

The Government also shares the same mission to facilitate technology diffusion in our community. Our citizens now enjoy a world-class telecommunications infrastructure and a wide range of convenient end-to-end services offered by the Government and business sector online. We are committed to providing a favourable environment for new technologies to be developed and transformed into better and more accessible services.

We have formulated the Digital 21 IT Strategy to position Hong Kong as a leading digital city connecting the world. Various infrastructural projects have been implemented under this Strategy, including building the soft infrastructure for the development of third generation mobile telecommunication service, the launch of the Electronic Service Delivery scheme to provide public services online, and the construction of the Cyberport to provide a world-class infrastructure and create synergy among different IT companies and talents. The momentum has been built and we will continue working with the industry and educational institutions to foster closer cooperation in the exploitation of new IT technologies.

It is in these perspectives that the agreement today carries its particular significance. It certainly marks an important international collaboration on IT. I am sure that with our excellent information infrastructure and a culture deeply entrenched with IT, you will find Hong Kong an ideal place for IT development and related research. More importantly, the agreement represents common interests in nurturing IT talents and developing new technologies. The agreement will lead to further collaboration and sharing in this regard, which we all look forward to.

Technological development and cooperation requires the participation of all relevant parties and the Government will continue to play our part to facilitate this. I would like to take this opportunity to express my warmest congratulations to WebEx Communications and the HKUST for bringing this cooperation into reality.

Thank you.

End/Monday, May 27, 2002

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