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Wealth of information built up in Government home page

A wealth of information on Government activities and services available to the public is gradually being built up on the Internet, according to Deputy Director of Information Services (Overseas) Mr Robin Gill.

This information can be found through accessing the Government home page known as the Government Information Centre (GIC).

Since the Government launched its GIC in December 1995, three policy branches, 15 government departments and agencies have set up their own home pages. Included is customised information unique to the branches and departments, specially arranged and edited for Internet purposes.

A special home page to promote the awareness of the AIDs disease was also launched in January by the AIDs Unit of the Department of Health.

Other government departments are also taking an active approach in making use of the Internet and at least 15 government agencies are preparing for the launch of their own home pages over the next few months.

In order to allow users to obtain general information on the Internet about departments which have not yet developed their own home pages, fact sheets related to the work of some of these departments have been put under the section "government and related information" within the GIC.

basis.

Press releases in both English and Chinese are now put on the GIC on a daily

Mr Gill noted that the number of people accessing the GIC is increasing steadily. Since its launch, the site has been accessed on over 72,000 occasions.

The daily average of visitors to the site has increased from 521 in December 1995 to 765 in March 1996.

The number of visitors doubled on Budget Day to 1,168 and rose to 1,276 the following day as users were keen to access first-hand government information from the Internet about the Budget speech.

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