COMMUNICATIONS, THE MEDIA AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
developing the project in cooperation with a private sector company so as to benefit from the expertise and entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector. The Cyberport is scheduled for completion in phases between mid-2002 and late 2004.
The Cyberport is a comprehensive development. The professional community will enjoy intelligent offices, enormous bandwidth, a wide range of shared IT facilities, a shopping arcade providing retail and entertainment facilities and a five-star hotel managed by the Le Meridien group, all set in a low density, campus-like environment. In addition, residential units apartments and houses - will be developed between 2004 and 2007 to provide an intelligent home environment for professionals who choose to live near to their offices.
The project is progressing well. Upon full completion, it will provide altogether more than a million square feet of Grade A office space to accommodate over 100 companies of different sizes and at different stages of development. These are like- minded companies specialising in IT applications, information services and multimedia content creation. Applications for Cyberport office tenancy have been received from multinational, overseas and local companies. Tenants are admitted based on the advice of a committee comprising local, international and industry members. Companies such as GE Information Services, Microsoft, ESRI, Sonera SmarTrust, PCCW, CSL and Sybase have signed up for leases with the Cyberport. Over 90 per cent of the office space in the first completed Phase I building has been leased out.
The Cyberport companies will bring with them like-minded professionals. They will apply, use, experiment, create and develop applications, services and contents and push back frontiers in their fields. This is also a place for grooming professional talent. The University of Hong Kong, together with five leading IT companies (Cisco, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle), will run a Cyberport Institute in the Cyberport from September 2003 to provide market-driven programmes to nurture talent for Hong Kong.
The Cyberport is set to contribute to the industrial and technological development in Hong Kong: a Digital Media Centre and a Wireless Solutions Development Centre will be set up in the Cyberport before the end of 2003 to provide the much needed hardware, software and technical support for the digital media companies and wireless industries in Hong Kong.
Telecommunications
The Government's telecommunications policy aims to facilitate the development of the telecommunications industry and enhance Hong Kong's position as a regional telecommunications hub.
Supported by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA), 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.
Since 2000, the Government has opened to competition all sectors of the telecommunications market — local and external, services-based and facilities-based. To provide a comprehensive and clear legislative framework for the regulation of merger and acquisition activities in the telecommunications market, the Telecommunications (Amendment) Bill 2002 was introduced into the Legislative
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