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The fourth meeting of the Hong Kong/Guangdong Expert Group on Co-operation in Informatisation was held today (July 10) at Cyberport, Hong Kong. The group endorsed the work plan and the collaboration focus for the coming year in order to enhance co-operation in informatisation.
The meeting was co-chaired by the Deputy Government Chief Information Officer (Policy and Customer Service), Ms Ava Chiu, and the Director-General of the Department of Information Industry of Guangdong Province, Mr Wen Guo-hui. Representatives from the two governments took note of the collaboration in informatisation last year and discussed the work plan for the coming year.
Speaking at the meeting, Ms Chiu said, "In the past year, we carried out a number of concrete plans and have made encouraging progress in various area, such as mutual recognition of electronic signature certificates, the study and application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, information service outsourcing, digital entertainment, open source software, mobile and wireless applications."
On mutual recognition of electronic signature certificates issued by Guangdong and Hong Kong, certification authorities in Hong Kong and their counterparts in Guangdong will jointly launch pilot projects in electronic certificate/electronic signature applications in order to promote secure cross border e-transactions. As for RFID, Guangdong and Hong Kong have jointly launched an electronic ear tag management pilot project to strengthen the trace management of live pigs imported to Hong Kong for food safety.
"The industries in the two places also actively organised a number of exchange activities to promote business matching between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Foshan," Ms Chiu said.
In the coming year, Guangdong and Hong Kong will continue their collaboration to further the work in such areas as the interoperability of information infrastructural facilities in the two places, RFID technology research and application, information portal construction, service outsourcing, digital entertainment, open source software, mobile and wireless applications.
Today's meeting was attended by representatives from the Office of Government Chief Information Officer, Create Hong Kong, Invest Hong Kong, Food and Health Bureau, Innovation and Technology Commission, Office of the Telecommunications Authority and Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The Mainland representatives were from the Department of Information Industry of Guangdong Province, Development and Reform Commission of Guangdong Province, Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province, Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation of Guangdong Province, Radio, Film and TV Administration of Guangdong Province, Guangdong Sub-Administration of China Customs and Guangdong Communications Administration.
The Hong Kong/Guangdong Expert Group on Co-operation in Informatisation was formed under the aegis of the Hong Kong/Guangdong Co-operation Joint Conference. The Eighth Plenary of the Hong Kong/Guangdong Co-operation Joint Conference held in September 2005 agreed to establish a new task force on co-operation in informatisation. The group meets once a year to report on its work progress and set the direction for future co-operation.
Meanwhile, the Government Chief Information Officer, Mr Jeremy Godfrey, and the Director-General of the Department of Information Industry of Guangdong Province, Mr Wen Guo-hui, attended the opening ceremony of the "Guangdong/Hong Kong Modern Information Services Industry Co-operation and Development Forum" today.
The forum is one of the key co-operation items of the expert group. The theme this year is cross border e-commerce. A total of 140 participants from government departments and academic, industrial and research sectors of the two places joined it to discuss how to promote the development of modern information service industry and secure e-commerce.
At the forum, the Director of the Department of Information Industry of Guangdong Province, Mr Shen Zhixiong, introduced various items relating to the information service industry under the "Framework for Development and Reform Planning for Pearl River Delta Region (2009-2020)". Representatives from the academic and research sectors discussed the problems and opportunities facing cross-border e-commerce, while electronic certification authorities of the two places spoke on the joint pilot projects on the mutual recognition of electronic signature certificates. Participants took part in the discussion actively and expressed constructive views on the subjects.
Ends/Friday, July 10, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:41
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