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Following is the opening address by the Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Mr Nicholas W Yang, at the Hong Kong Internet of Things (IoT) Conference 2016 today (June 21):
Anna (Chief Executive of GS1 Hong Kong, Ms Anna Lin), Robert (President of the Hong Kong Internet of Things Industry Advisory Council, Mr Robert Burton), Charles (Legislative Council member Mr Charles Mok), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning. It is my pleasure to join you all at today's Hong Kong Internet of Things, or IoT, Conference 2016.
IoT is developing fast around the world. Cisco predicts that the global IoT market will reach US$14.4 trillion by 2022. Adoption of IoT in production can improve the supply chain, reduce costs and increase productivity. More importantly, IoT products enhance customer experience. According to Oracle's latest findings, about 50 per cent of IoT activities today focus on manufacturing, transformation, smart cities and consumer marketing. Connected homes, connected vehicles and wearable devices are the fastest developing IoT applications.
As an international metropolitan city, Hong Kong is an early adopter of IoT. Examples of IoT applications abound: from supply chain and warehouse management, luggage handling at the Hong Kong airport, trade and logistics, to public services like customs clearance and tracking, monitoring of water leakage and landslide hazards, and so forth. With the rapid development of technology and the quick emergence of the Internet-driven economy, we need to move forward.
One of the major initiatives announced in the Policy Address earlier this year is to develop Hong Kong into a smart city. Addressing urban challenges aside, smart city development plays a pivotal role in promoting the use of IoT in the community: we need a robust and sophisticated digital infrastructure to provide connectivity and support smart city solutions and applications.
To take forward Hong Kong's smart city development, the Government will soon commence a consultancy study to formulate a territory-wide blueprint for Hong Kong. People say it is another study. No, really, because this study comes with a view to drawing up our development plans up to 2030. This blueprint will also cover a host of proposals for pilot application of the various technologies, which include IoT solutions.
Building upon our world-class ICT infrastructure, the Government is also expanding the coverage of free public Wi-Fi by doubling the number of hotspots within the next three years. We aim to cover more public venues such as public rental housing estates, public hospitals, markets, parks and tourist spots, etc. We will also double progressively the speed of Wi-Fi connection at government venues and enhance their security.
The Government cannot do this alone. To keep pace with technology development and ensure its sustainability, we will adopt a public-private partnership (PPP) approach to expand the coverage of our free Wi-Fi initiative, also known as Wi-Fi.HK, to more busy streets, bus stops and shopping malls. This PPP approach will encourage innovation in the business sector to develop IoT applications and products in collaboration with the venue operators. Users and the public at large will benefit from better and more secured coverage, and more variety of value-added services provided by the business sector.
Another key initiative relating to IoT development is big data applications. Later this year, the Government will map out our policy in this regard to strengthen the government policymaking process and create new business opportunities. We will also strengthen our open data sharing initiative launched a few years ago. The Government's Public Sector Information (PSI) portal - Data.Gov.HK - already offers over 6 000 individual datasets in 18 categories in machine readable formats. The Government will continue to encourage both public and private organisations to release more datasets on our PSI portal, and facilitate their usage by providing APIs and related support tools. GS1 Hong Kong has been our steadfast partner and provided input to us on many fronts, including smart city and IoT. I look forward to GS1's continued support in this meaningful and important endeavour.
Lastly, I would like to thank GS1 Hong Kong for organising today's IoT conference. This is an excellent opportunity for participants to learn best practices and the latest trends in the industry and contribute your own insights. I wish you all will have a fruitful conference and go home with plenty of new ideas and new thoughts and to help Hong Kong.
Thank you very much.
Ends/Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Issued at HKT 12:17
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