The Hong Kong Government has adopted a multiple-prong approach in its ICT policy. The policy promotes further deregulation of the IT sector, construction of the telecommunications-related infrastructure, the growth of e-business, e-government overhaul, investment in IT education, investment in cybercities and technology parks, reform in legal framework concerning intellectual property rights and e-business, as well as international IT co-operation. Digital 21' IT strategy serves as the blueprint of Hong Kong's ICT policy. The Telecommunications Authority (TA) oversees the regulation of the telecommunications industry in Hong Kong and administers the ordinances governing the establishment and operation of telecommunications services.
The Hong Kong
Government has undertaken the following initiatives:
-Full liberalization of the telecommunications
market from January 2003 will permit no pre-set limit on the number of
licenses to be issued or on timing for application and no requirement on
performance bond or capital expenditure.
-Full liberalization of the international
telecommunications services market has been in effect since January 1999.
-Hong Kong has initiated further
liberalization of the television market with the issue of new pay television
licenses.
-An administrative code of practice
on access to government information has been in effect since 1995.
-The Hong Kong Government has issued
four third generation mobile services (3G) licenses in October 2001. The
winners were Hong Kong CSL, Hutchison 3G, SmarTone 3G and Sunday 3G. Nokia
and Ericsson were awarded with 3G infrastructure contracts from Hong Kong
CSL and Hutchison 3G. The latest development is that executives from QUALCOMM
are in talks with officials in Taiwan and Hong Kong to buy up its Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000-based equipment.
-Hong Hong is committed in promoting
effective competition and consumer choice at affordable prices, maintaining
a fair and competitive market environment, and stimulating investment in
broadband infrastructure according to the regulatory framework issued in
November 2000.
-Hong Kong has earmarked a teleport
site in Chung Hom Kok where providers of external telecommunications facilities
and broadcasters can establish external links to and from the city.
-Hong Kong participates in the activities
of international and regional telecommunications organizations
-The release of Digital 21' IT strategy
is one of the critical components of Hong Kong IT policy. The first release
in 1998 focuses on telecomm sector deregulation and infrastructure. The
revision in 2001 focuses on stimulating the growth of e-commerce in Hong
Kong. (6)
The full liberalization
of the telecommunications market will cover:
-Local fixed telecommunications
network services (FTNS) market
-External telecommunications facilities
market by acquiring capacity through the purchase of Indefeasible Rights
of Use (IRUs) of submarine or overland cables (7)
3-G Licensing (8)
Under the licensing approach with a pre-qualification exercise followed by spectrum auctioning, the Hong Kong Government issued licenses in October 2001 to four successful bidders, namely Hong Kong CSL Limited, Hutchison 3G HK Limited, SmarTone 3G Limited and SUNDAY 3G (Hong Kong) Limited. Each of them would pay a 5 percent royalty, with a flat payment of $50 million in each of the first five years and rising minimum guaranteed payments from year six onwards during the 15-year license period. The royalty scheme takes account of the financial burden borne by the operators.
To ensure competition at both the network and service application levels, the 3G network operators must make available 30 per cent of network capacity for interconnection to, or access by, non-affiliated Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) and/or content providers on a non-discriminatory basis.
Digital 21' IT Strategy (9)
Sixty percent of households have installed personal computers, 50 percent of households are connected to the Internet, and over 84 percent of the population has mobile phones in Hong Kong. The high Internet penetration rate is the result of Hong Kong residents’ passion for entertainment through the electronic media. Internet accounts exceed 2.6 million, broadband coverage reaches all commercial buildings and over 95 percent of households, and there are over eight million e-payment 'smart' cards in circulation.
In May 2001, the Hong Kong Government released its updated 'Digital 21' IT Strategy to outline future IT development in Hong Kong. The objective is to position Hong Kong as a leading global e-business community and digital city by targeting e-business, e-government, IT manpower, building a digital society, and exploitation of enabling technologies.
E-business (10)
Hong Kong has liberalized the telecommunications market, enacted the Electronic Transactions Ordinance to provide a clear legal framework for e-business, and established a local Public Key Infrastructure for the conduct of secure electronic transactions. A review on the Electronic Transactions Ordinance is under way with the aim of keeping it up-to-date with technological advancements and international e-business developments.
The Hong Kong Government also organizes various promotional activities to encourage the business sector, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to adopt e-business, and works with industry support organizations to provide support services to assist SMEs in adopting IT and e-business.
E-government (11)
In 2001, the Hong Kong Government has set the goal of providing the public with the option to obtain service on-line or through other electronic means for 90 per cent of the public services amenable to the electronic mode of delivery and conducting 80 percent of its procurement tenders through electronic means by the end of 2003. It will proceed with the flagship projects in the categories of government-to-citizen (G2C), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-employee (G2E) and government-to-government (G2G). In order to better drive the E-government agenda forward, monitor the achievement of the e-government targets and co-ordinate flagship e-government initiatives, the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau establish a dedicated E-government Coordination Office in August 2001.
In order to promote
efficient operation within the Hong Kong Government and improve responsiveness
in the delivery of public services, with a stable, reliable and resilient
broadband government communication network as well as a system for the
exchange of internal confidential mail, it has undertaken the following
measures:
-Initiating a program to more than
double the number of officers connected to the government broadband network
by mid-2003.
-Launching systems for electronic
leave application and processing, submission of funding applications for
computerization projects and preparation of the annual
estimates, either on a pilot or
phased basis, with the aim of having more internal government business
conducted on-line.
-Encouraging government departments
to examine their long-range computerization requirements and formulate
information systems strategy or IT plans to support their long-term needs.
By the end 2001, 44 bureaux and departments had such strategies or plans
in place.
Electronic Service Delivery (12)
The Electronic
Service Delivery (ESD) scheme, launched in 2001, aims to provide efficient
and customer-oriented public services to the community on-line on round-the-clock
basis and spearhead the development of e-business in Hong Kong. The public
can access ESD services through a wide range of delivery channels including
personal computers with Internet connection, public computer facilities
and ESD kiosks installed throughout Hong Kong. Services provided through
mobile phones/devices will be launched sometime in 2002.
Furthermore,
more than 120 types of on-line public services from more than 40 government
departments and agencies are available at the ESD web site (http://www.esd.gov.hk/home/eng/default.asp),
for example, booking of marriage dates, purchase of government publications,
on-line dissemination of census and statistical data, and registration
to sit for public examinations. During 2001, the ESD web site attracted
over 307 million hits and generated some 1.15 million transactions. The
ESD web site won the 2001 Stockholm Challenge Award.
IT Manpower (13)
Recommendations
to satisfy the IT manpower needs in Hong Kong are:
-Admission of IT professionals from
Mainland China
-Improving the admission regime
for overseas IT professionals
-Expansion of the post-secondary
program
-Encouraging world-renowned private
IT training institutions to operate in Hong Kong
-Grooming talented professional
people at the Cyberport
-Accreditation of IT skills below
degree level
-Attracting overseas Hong Kong and
Mainland talent to return to work in Hong Kong
-Nurturing young talent through
an exchange/internship program and the provision of professional IT training
to secondary students.
Building a Digital Society (14)
The Government launched an 'IT Hong Kong' campaign in September 2000 to raise IT awareness and promote wider adoption of IT in the community through promotional activities and IT awareness courses for senior citizens, housewives and people with disabilities as well as other members of the public. In particular, an 'IT Hong Kong' website serves as a forum for diffusion of information to the public on IT and related activities The government has also installed over 4 800 public computers with Internet connections (Community Cyberpoints) at convenient locations such as community centers/halls, public libraries, district offices and post offices for free use by the community. In order to enhance access for the blind and the visually impaired, the Hong Kong Government has also established dedicated Community Cyberpoints with enlargement device, Braille machines, software packages for conversion of text to voice.The Hong Kong Government will enforce universal accessibility standards in all its web sites and encourage government-related organizations and the private sector to adopt these standards as well to make web sites accessible to people with disabilities.
Exploitation of Enabling Technologies (15)
The Hong Kong
Government has undertaken the following initiatives:
-To help universities to set up
a high-speed link to the Internet2 Consortium in North America in 2002.
-To exploit 'Smart' card technology
with the issue of the new generation ID cards with multi-application capacity
to carry other value-added applications starting from mid-2003.
-To issue mobile digital certificates
in order to support the conduct of secure mobile
commerce.
-To explore the use of voice recognition
technology and mobile computing devices in providing government services
and enhancing government off-site operation.
IT Co-operation (16)
Since 1998, Hong Kong has signed information and communications technology co-operative agreements on information technology with Australia, Canada, Finland, India, Israel, Korea and United Kingdom to encourage and support inter-governmental exchanges, business partnerships, investment co-operation and joint research and development in the areas of IT and telecommunications.
Cyberport (17)
The Cyberport at Telegraph Bay will provide an infrastructure for clustering of quality companies specializing in applications of IT, information services and creation of multimedia content. It is scheduled for completion in phases between early 2002 and 2004.
The Cyberport is a comprehensive development that will provide intelligent offices and other high-tech facilities for IT companies. The information infrastructure will connect different areas of the Cyberport campus and will link the campus with the rest of the world. The initial scalable bandwidth capacity will satisfy rapid digital development needs of Cyberport tenants for the next quarter of century. A strategic cluster of over 100 IT and IT-related companies of varying sizes and at different stages of development will be built up at the Cyberport, starting from early 2002.
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