COMMUNICATIONS, THE MEDIA & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
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The government is committed to providing a favourable environment supported by a sound legal framework to foster the development of electronic commerce in Hong Kong. Certification authorities will be established as part of a public key infrastructure to provide security and trust in the conduct of electronic transactions over open networks. Hong Kong will also participate in the deliberations of international fora such as the World Trade Organisation, the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in order to keep in close touch with world development in, and to put across its views on, electronic commerce.
Computerisation within Government
Hong Kong aims to ensure that the information technology needs of government departments are met in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. Government offices are encouraged to use information technology to upgrade the quality of the services they provide to the public. Spending on information technology within government each year increased from $610 million in 1992/93 to $1,871 million in 1997/98. As at December 1998, there were 15 mainframe computer systems, 600 mid- range computer systems and 57 600 micro-computers in the government.
Departments are encouraged to conduct information systems strategy studies to examine their longer-term computerisation requirements with a view to addressing such requirements in the departmental resource planning process over a five-year period. Such studies had been conducted for 12 departments up to December 1998. A Government Office Automation programme which aims to improve communication within and among bureaux/departments has been implemented. A first phase programme, covering 22 bureaux and secretariat offices, was completed in 1996. The second phase, covering all other government departments, has already commenced with a target completion date by the end of 2000.
With the rapid development of information technology and its widespread application within the government, the objective is to develop an integrated government-wide information technology infrastructure with uniform design principles, standard models, common facilities and proper measures to safeguard information integrity and security. This would enable information to be shared across departments, support policy formulation and decision-making, accelerate system development, ensure optimum use of modern information technology and allow us to cope with departmental needs on a unified and integrated platform.
A Development and Disaster Recovery Bureau has been established within the Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) to provide standby disaster recovery services to government departments and related organisations. It will ensure the continuous delivery of critical government services to the public. All critical mainframe/mid-range administrative applications of government departments are covered by this service.
The ITSD and the Official Languages Agency, in consultation with various departments, have developed a common Chinese character set — the Government Chinese Character Set - for use by all departments. This facilitates the use of the Chinese language in government offices and the exchange of electronic documents among departments. It includes more than 3 000 user-defined characters used within government in addition to the 13 000 characters normally used.