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The following is a question by the Dr Hon David Li and a written reply by the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr John Tsang, in the Legislative Council today (June 2):

Question:

Will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the total number of smart identity cards that have been issued since the commencement of the Hong Kong Smart Identity Card Replacement Exercise and, among them, the number of those provided with an e-Cert digital certificate which is free for the first year;

(b) of the total costs to the Post Office for providing such free offer, including those for account administration and renewal promotion; and

(c) whether the Administration has any means of tracking the usage rate of the e-Cert; if so, of the rate to date; and the expected renewal rate for the e-Cert after expiry of the free offer?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The Immigration Department issued, as of May 15, 2004, 1.34 million smart identity cards, of which 310,000 have been embedded with e-Certs that are free for use in the first year of issue.

(b) The total direct cost to the Hongkong Post of providing the first year free e-Certs during the four-year identity card replacement exercise is estimated to be $55.2 million, of which $22.3 million would be on maintenance of related computer systems, $15.7 million on customer services including account administration, and $17.2 million on promotional activities. An additional $12.6 million would be spent on the provision of hardware facilities.

(c) On-line transactions are basically matters between transacting parties, such as businesses and citizens. We do not have any means to keep track of these transactions.

Given that the renewal of the e-Certs is voluntary and that the first year of free service has not expired, we have no reliable basis to predict the rate of renewal of the e-Certs. Our strategy, however, is that the one-year free offer will help build up a critical mass of e-Cert users. We hope this provides the incentive for the industry to develop more applications and services, and in turn, encourages greater usage and renewal of e-Certs in due course.

Ends/Wednesday, June 2, 2004

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