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The Digital 21 Strategy Advisory Committee reviewed the progress made in the past year in implementing the 2004 Digital 21 Strategy and discussed the targets and actions plans for the coming year at its meeting today (January 20).
Members noted that the Government had made good progress in the eight main areas of action under the Digital 21 Strategy, which is the blueprint for driving the development and adoption of information and communications technology (ICT) in Hong Kong.
Apart from taking stock of the progress made in 2005, the Government Chief Information Officer (GCIO), who is tasked to measure and report progress on the Strategy, has also identified areas requiring further work and proposed new initiatives to be undertaken in 2006. These include launching a three-year pilot scheme to open up the intellectual property rights in Government IT systems for commercial exploitation in the first quarter of 2006, rolling out a new One-Stop Access Portal in mid-2006 to deliver citizen-centric e-government services, and putting in place a new mechanism to strengthen the governance of IT projects with effect from April, 2006.
Members also noted that the Government had commenced preparatory work for the next round of Digital 21 Strategy review. To deepen and broaden the support of bureaux and departments (B/Ds) and the relevant stakeholders for the Digital 21 Strategy, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) will initiate discussions with them in the first quarter of 2006, with a view to coming up with a draft document for public consultation in late 2006.
The updated strategy, to be promulgated in early 2007, will be the blueprint for further ICT development in Hong Kong for the period from 2007 to 2010.
At today's meeting, the committee also discussed the outcome of the business review of the Hong Kong Post Certification Authority conducted in mid-2005. Members noted that Hongkong Post would conduct a Request for Proposal exercise in the first half of 2006 to invite the private sector to participate in running the e-Cert services and to come up with new value-added services/businesses so as to engender a self-financing public certification authority operation.
Members were also briefed on the results of the 2005 surveys on IT Usage and Penetration in the Household and Business Sectors in Hong Kong.
According to the results of the Household survey, personal computers (PC) and Internet connections were very common among the households in Hong Kong. Among all the domestic households in Hong Kong, 70.1% of them had PC at home in 2005. Among those households with PC at home, 92.2% had their PC connected to the Internet, representing 64.6% of all domestic households in Hong Kong. This is similar to the situation in 2004.
According to the Establishment Survey, the percentage of business establishments using PCs and having Internet connection in 2005 had increased over 2004, being 60.5% and 54.7% respectively. The corresponding figures in 2004 were 58.4% and 50.4% respectively.
Ends/Friday, January 20, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:22
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