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Following is the transcript of the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology (SCIT), Mr John Tsang, speaking to the media after attending the luncheon of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation today (October 10):

Reporter: Mr Tsang, you talked about two separate issues on merging. The first was about OFTA and BA, and the review process of that. Can you explain why there might be a reason for reviewing, having two separate entities? Is that merging you talked about within your current bureau. For the two different departments, again can you explain why there is a need to do that, and when will that happen?

SCIT: For the merging of the Telecommunications Authority and the Broadcasting Authority, that has a lot to do with technology convergence. With the emergence of this convergence, it is necessary for us to really look at the regulatory framework that we have right now, which is quite distinct and independent in a way. It will be helpful as the technology converges, we can come up with a regulatory framework that suits the time. That is the basic intention. As for the merging of ITSD and the branch, there are two branches under my bureau. One is Commerce and Industry, and the other one is Communications and Technology. Under Communications and Technology, we have the Information Technology Services Department (ITSD). We want to focus a lot more on the precise work ITSD is doing and there is also the convergence issue of all the different technologies. We want to hear from the community what they think of this idea. Get the pros and cons. We will balance it out and make a decision early next year. The entire Digital 21 document will be for consultation for the next two months.

Report: A question about the CEPA. There are a lot of comments about what are the benefits of the IT industry. Can you comment on what exactly are the benefits to it and what are the challenges that they need to recap on this benefit?

SCIT: The best people to ask really is not a bureaucrat like myself, but rather somebody from the industry and ask them what kind of benefits they could get out of the five value-added services that would be opened up. The opportunity is there but again I would like to stress that the opportunity must be taken up by the private sector and the industry concerned. They have to explore that and they have to make something out of that.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Friday, October 10, 2003

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