ENG-2000 — Page 427

COMMUNICATIONS, THE MEDIA AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

'Digital 21' IT Strategy

The Government is committed to keeping Hong Kong in the forefront of IT development. The 'Digital 21' IT Strategy formulated in November 1998 seeks to enhance and promote the HKSAR's information infrastructure and services so as to make it a leading digital city in the world. Significant achievements have been recorded in implementing the strategy. The Government has continued to liberalise the telecommunications market, set up a Public Key Infrastructure supported by a certification authority for the conduct of secure electronic transactions, enacted the Electronic Transactions Ordinance to give the same legal status to electronic records and digital signatures as that of their paper counterparts, and launched the Electronic Service Delivery Scheme, and so on. These are essential in building the e-infrastructure which has strengthened Hong Kong's role as the IT metropolis of Asia.

To keep up with technological advancement and world IT development, the Government reviewed the 'Digital 21' IT Strategy. In addition to building infrastructure and setting standards to foster conducive e-commerce environment, it will focus on building e-government, strengthening the community for digital exploitation, strengthening IT manpower supply and enhancing exploitation of advanced technologies.

IT Co-operation

During the year, Hong Kong signed a bilateral agreement on IT co-operation with Israel, and Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) of the same nature with India and Finland. This followed the signing of MOU of a similar nature with Canada and Australia in 1998 and the United Kingdom in 1999. The Government has been working closely with its partners under the aegis of the agreement and the MOU to encourage and support inter-governmental exchanges, business partnerships, investment co-operation and joint research and development in the areas of IT and telecommunications. It will continue to explore the possibility of concluding similar bilateral arrangements on co-operation with other places that are advanced in the use of IT.

Subsequent to the release of the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS), which represents a common set of 4 702 Chinese characters uniquely used in Hong Kong and the standard character sets normally available for computer uses, a set of procedures and principles for incorporation of additional characters into the HKSCS has been implemented since April. Furthermore, the Government has been working closely with its counterparts in the Mainland and other economies of the region under the aegis of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) on the development of the ISO10646 standard for ideographic character coding. It has promulgated the implementation plan for establishing the common interface to tie in with the progressive adoption of the standard by the ISO. The industry is also encouraged to conduct more research and software development that facilitates the adoption of ISO10646.

Year 2000 Problem for Computer and Embedded Systems

Following a smooth rollover to the new year with no major Year 2000-related incidents encountered, the Government continued monitoring activities throughout the year to keep a close lookout for any Y2K-related developments. For example, to

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