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Following is the speech by Mr Alan Wong Chi-kong, Director of Information Technology Services, at the Signing Ceremony of the Government Security Program Source Code Agreement today (November 25):

Mr Huang, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to be here today to officiate at the signing ceremony of the Government Security Program Source Code Agreement (or GSP Source Code Agreement in short) between the HKSAR Government and Microsoft.

For Hong Kong to sustain its position as a leading digital city in the world, we will continue to enhance our ICT infrastructure and nurture our e-community with more and enriched application services. It is vital to ensure that our citizens have confidence in our ICT infrastructure and carry out electronic transactions in their daily life without fear of system failure, loss of data or breach of data privacy. We need to provide them with high quality services protected by a secure environment.

Information security is instrumental to the healthy development of our e-business environment. We have taken a wide range of measures to ensure the security of Government's information systems and infrastructures. One of these measures is to provide intensive training for our staff to regularly enhance their professional knowledge and support capability which are required for effective deployment of security technologies.

The GSP is a standing offer by Microsoft to permit government bodies to access the software source codes and related information of various Microsoft Windows Operating System products. Technical information and security documentation, which Microsoft does not otherwise share with their clients in the absence of a GSP, will also be disclosed to the governments that have joined the program. Participating governments are also offered the opportunity to visit Microsoft's corporate development facilities, discuss with their security experts on Microsoft's product development issues, provide comments and suggestions as well as review the Windows source-code development process.

We consider that the facilities offered under the GSP are of great value to the HKSAR Government. Through better understanding of the internal design and coding of the Microsoft Windows products, we should be able to enhance our technology and support capability on the use of Microsoft products. The GSP will also enable us to appreciate in greater depth the integration of Microsoft products with other products. On the above considerations, the HKSAR Government has decided to accept Microsoft's offer to join the GSP. Through the GSP, we hope to be able to defend the Government's ICT infrastructure more effectively and keep all the cyber-terrorists and attackers outside the firewall!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Microsoft again for introducing this very innovative and useful program. I look forward to receiving Microsoft's continued support in the successful implementation of the various projects and training activities covered under this Agreement.

Thank you.

Ends/Tuesday, November 25, 2003
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