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Following is a question by Dr Hon David Li Kwok-po and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, (in the absence of the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development) in the Legislative Council today (November 7):
Question:
Regarding the government forms used by businesses and the general public, the Government reported to the Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting of this Council in July this year that a total of 2,509 out of 2,588 government forms were available through the Internet. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of government forms that have been adapted to take advantage of the electronic delivery channel, and among them, the respective numbers of those adapted for electronic form-filling alone and those adapted for both electronic form-filling and electronic submission;
(b) of the target number of government forms that it intends to make available for both electronic form-filling and electronic submission and the timetable for achieving such target;
(c) whether it has formulated a strategy to maintain forms that are submitted electronically in the electronic form instead of in a paper-base mode; if not, of the reasons for that; and
(d) the expected savings, resulting from the reduction in paper consumption and improvement in operational efficiency, that could be achieved by meeting the target in (b) and adopting e-solutions for processing and maintaining the forms concerned?
Reply:
Madam President,
Regarding the question raised by Dr Hon David Li Kwok-po, my reply is as follows:
(a) Out of the over 2,500 government forms which are available online, more than 1,200 can be submitted electronically via online services or as attachments to emails. We do not have statistics on the number of forms which only cater for electronic form-filling.
(b) Over 95% of all government forms are available online. Only a small percentage of forms is not currently accessible through the Internet. They mainly include those that are issued by departments to specific applicants/companies for operational reasons, mostly with pre-filled personal/company data; saleable forms that are not normally used by the general public; and forms related to statutory declarations.
Some online Government forms are not currently provided with electronic submission option mainly due to legal or procedural requirement or low usage. For example, some forms have to be submitted in person for statutory declaration and others are required to be submitted together with original copy of supporting documents.
We encourage bureaux/departments to make forms available online and to provide an electronic submission option wherever feasible. We will continue to liaise with the concerned bureaux /departments to review the feasibility of overcoming existing legal, procedural or business related problems so as to further improve beyond the 95% rate. It should nevertheless be recognised that there would always be a small proportion of forms which may not be available through the Internet for good reasons.
(c) Forms submitted electronically are normally kept in the electronic databases of individual bureaux/departments. Whether hard copy print-outs are required is dependant on the business process and operational procedures of the bureau/department concerned. If the forms are required to be kept as evidence of the business transaction, bureaux/departments are required to comply with the record keeping requirements by printing and filing a hard copy. The Government is in the process of formulating a new strategy and relevant policies on using electronic means to manage information and records.
(d) We have no statistics on the amount of savings in terms of paper consumption and efficiency gains in respect of the currently available online forms. Since each form is underpinned by specific business processes with different degree of potentials for automation and efficiency gain, the benefits in adopting e-solutions for the processing and maintenance of forms will have to be assessed on case-by-case basis.
Ends/Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Issued at HKT 15:20
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