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The following is a speech by Acting Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Gregory So, at the opening ceremony of World Summit Award 2011 Grand Jury – Hong Kong today (April 8):
Professor (Peter) Bruck, Mr (Alex) Hung, Dr (Winnie) Tang, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
I am honoured to be the guest of honour at the opening ceremony of the World Summit Award 2011 Grand Jury - Hong Kong. The theme of today's event is "Revolutionising with Technology and Creating Harmony with Content". Indeed, our Government's Digital 21 Strategy shares essentially the same goals.
The Digital 21 Strategy sets out the blueprint for Hong Kong's ICT development. Seeking to promote Hong Kong as a leading digital city, the Strategy covers a wide array of initiatives and goals, and we have identified industry facilitation, e-government service delivery and digital inclusion as three important areas. Today I will focus on two important initiatives under the Strategy, namely IPv6 promotion and cloud computing, since these are also topics that will be explored further during the rest of the day.
IPv6 readiness
The exhaustion of IPv4 addresses is a major concern in the Internet community. In Hong Kong, the Government has officially adopted IPv6 and has taken measures to help deploy IPv6 since 2008. At present, Hong Kong's Internet infrastructure is IPv6 ready and some Internet services providers are already offering IPv6 commercial services. On the e-government front, the Government Backbone Network has been enhanced to support IPv6 in addition to IPv4. The public can access over 200 government websites, including the GovHK one-stop portal, using IPv6. We have also set up a public web page to disseminate IPv6 information and arranged IPv6 training courses for government staff.
To better prepare Hong Kong for the adoption of IPv6 and empower industry stakeholders to seize business opportunities on the Mainland, which has been making great advances on this front, we need to continue to raise awareness of the migration to IPv6. This is especially important among SMEs in order to maintain interoperability and to make frequent business dealings with our major international trading and strategic partners, in particular Mainland counterparts. The Government will launch a series of education and awareness-building programmes later in the year.
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is an enabler for the transformation and continuous improvement of public service. In the next few years, the Government will begin to adopt the cloud computing model to re-provision Government's central IT infrastructure and services and enhance operational efficiencies.
We will develop shared services applications such as electronic information management, human resources management, electronic procurement and support for paper-less meetings. We will develop a new platform for supporting common e-government applications. We will establish the underlying infrastructure including servers, networks, storage and operating systems on a flexible and virtualised basis.
We will ensure that the industry and the Government are moving in tandem to develop a cloud-regime befitting Hong Kong's status as a regional ICT hub. In addition to offering opportunities for local service providers, the skills, infrastructures and business models established in the development process will be invaluable for the further development of the IT industry. To the community, a major benefit is the overall agility in providing public services and enhancing productivity in implementing government policies. In addition, this programme will ensure a more convenient and coherent customer experience.
Both IPv6 and cloud computing are important yet complex issues that require substantial input from the industry. I look forward to working with stakeholders in the future. In closing, I wish the World Summit Award 2011 Grand Jury - Hong Kong event all success, and our guests from outside Hong Kong a memorable and enjoyable stay in Hong Kong - Asia's world city.
Thank you.
Ends/Friday, April 8, 2011
Issued at HKT 15:18
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