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The Land Registry (LR) today (July 25) announces a partnership with the Computer And Technologies International Limited (CTIL) for a 10-year programme to deliver improved land registration services to the community.
Under the partnership, CTIL is contracted by the LR to build and commission a new Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) for Hong Kong. CTIL is a subsidiary of the locally-listed information technology (IT) services company, Computer And Technologies Holdings Limited (C&T).
Speaking at a ceremony to announce the partnership today, the Land Registrar, Mr Kim Salkeld, said that the objective of the partnership was to bring a transformed LR into operation by the end of 2003.
"The key features of the improved services will include the provision of comprehensive services for the whole territory from a central registration office; reduction of registration time from about 15 days to 24 hours, and the availability of comprehensive search services through the Internet."
Replacing three separate systems currently running at the LR, the operation of the new IRIS will set a new milestone for the land registration services to the general public. It will provide greater operating efficiency, greater security for data and capacity and flexibility for future development. IRIS will also be able to handle title registration when the Land Titles Bill is enacted.
Mr Salkeld said he was confident that, through the partnership, the LR would be able to deliver services of higher quality and better value for money to Hong Kong in the coming years.
"The partnership is not just to build and commission IRIS. It involves a 10-year programme to build on the IRIS platform to deliver improved services to the community.
"The LR will invest $150 million in the partnership over the next 10 years. $65 million is for capital investment, with the balance of $85 million being the recurrent cost over the period.
"We are very pleased with the outcome of the tendering process. Some very high quality submissions were made. That by CTIL was outstanding technically. The capital cost is well within our initial expectations and the annual recurrent cost will be significantly less than for our existing information systems," Mr Salkeld said.
CTIL will lead a consortium to take full responsibility for the overall project management in developing and implementing for the LR the IRIS, comprising a Central Registration System (CRS) and a Land Title System (LTS), to replace the existing fragmented core business systems of the Registry.
IRIS will accommodate the existing deeds registration system, the switch to a CRS, and the proposed conversion to a LTS. In addition to the large-scale application development, C&T will also provide the Registry with related IT outsourcing services.
Also officiating at the ceremony is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of C&T, Mr Ng Cheung-shing.
Mr Ng said, "We are committed in making the IRIS project another success for both the LR and C&T, and are prepared to contribute and count on 'serving our Government' as our priority.
"Since the Digital 21 Strategy was commissioned in 1998, C&T has been an active participant in implementing many of such related programs and initiatives of the Government such as Electronic Service Delivery and Electronic Tendering System. It is our honour to once again participate and contribute to important Government IT project of these kinds."
The Land Registry is the first trading fund department in Hong Kong. It was set up on August 1, 1993. The LR provides land registration services to secure interests in land and property, and search services to facilitate property transactions in Hong Kong.
The implementation and operation of the IRIS is an integral part of its programme to give Hong Kong land registration services of the highest quality and best value.
By adopting on-line processing instead of the current batch processing, the new IT system will streamline the registration process to a whole-of-job operation. This will significantly increase productivity and shorten the cycle time. Full implementation of the IRIS project will simplify registration procedures, reduce conveyancing time, increase the availability of search services and enable a seamless migration to the planned title registration system.
End/Thursday, July 25, 2002
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