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The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) today (July 31) announced the outcomes of two major tenders for information technology (IT) professional staff and services.
The Government today awarded 54 standing offer agreements to 26 companies for the provision of professional services to undertake IT assignments on demand in the Government under the "Standing Offer Agreement for Quality Professional Services" (SOA-QPS) scheme. The selected contractors will provide four categories of services: (1) pre-implementation and independent programme/project management services; (2) ongoing services; (3) implementation and combined system development services; and (4) information security services, for a contract period of 48 months. During the contract period, individual demands in the form of assignment proposals will be invited by government departments for competitive bidding among the contractors of the relevant service category and service group.
The Government also completed the tendering procedure for the "Tender for the Provision of IT Contract Staff Services to the Government of the HKSAR" (T22 tender) and appointed another 11 contractors on July 29 to provide IT contract staff placement services on an as-and-when-required basis by government departments for a term of three years, starting from August 1.
Welcoming the appointment of the contractors of the two tenders, the Government Chief Information Officer, Mr Jeremy Godfrey said, "Fostering a vibrant information and communications technology (ICT) industry with a knowledgeable and versatile workforce in Hong Kong is one of the key initiatives under our Digital 21 Strategy.
"As one of Hong Kong's largest users of IT, the Government's IT expenditure has a major impact on the healthy development of the ICT sector. Our strategy for facilitating the ICT sector is twofold. While keeping IT spending at a high level by helping departments take forward worthy projects in support of their policy and initiatives, we will continue to adopt an active outsourcing strategy to preserve jobs and assist employment in the private sector."
Mr Godfrey said the demand for IT staff resources and in the Government would increase in the coming years. There are currently more than 1,300 IT contract staff engaged through 10 contractors working in different government departments. Under the new T22 contracts, one more contractor has been appointed in anticipation of the growing number of e-government projects in the coming three years. It is estimated that an additional 200 contract staff will be required, bringing the total number of contract staff to about 1,500.
For the SOA-QPS scheme, the number of standing offer agreements has increased from 40 to 54 under the new contracts. The Government estimates that it will draw assignment-based services from these contracts costing about $858 million.
Following up on one of the recommendations by the Task Force on Economic Challenges to further develop the innovation and technology sector, the new SOA-QPS scheme has been enhanced to enable the opening up of intellectual property rights in new government IT systems where applicable. This arrangement will facilitate industry development and create further business opportunities by allowing contractors to exploit the intellectual properties they develop for the Government, thereby increasing their economic value.
Mr Godfrey said, "The increase in the number of standing offer agreements will help expanding the opportunities for participation by IT contractors, including the local small and medium-sized enterprises."
Ends/Friday, July 31, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:46
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