ENG-2000 — Page 428

COMMUNICATIONS, THE MEDIA AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

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ensure that the mission-critical systems of the Government and essential service providers would not be affected by the leap year date change, the Government put in place a Hong Kong-wide monitoring and co-ordinating mechanism during the rollover to February 29, 2000. With careful and comprehensive preparation, Hong Kong as a whole had a smooth leap year rollover with no disruption to any essential services.

Cyberport

In March 1999, the Financial Secretary announced the Government's intention to proceed with the development of a cyberport at Telegraph Bay, in the Southern District, on the western side of Hong Kong Island. This will provide an infrastructure for clustering of quality companies specialising in applications of IT, in information services and in creation of multimedia content.

The Government is proceeding with the development of the Cyberport, in co- operation with a private sector company, so as to benefit from the expertise and entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector. In May, it signed a legally binding Project Agreement with Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) and with a company which PCCW has set up for the purpose of performing the role of Cyberport developer. The main terms of the Project Agreement were announced to reassure the public that the Government's and the public's maximum interests are safeguarded and that the Cyberport developer is committed to completing the project in the shortest possible time and to shouldering all the costs and the risks.

Infrastructural and building works are progressing well, and the Cyberport is scheduled for completion in phases from early 2002 and end-2003. This is a comprehensive development that will provide intelligent offices for hi-tech IT companies, and it will be complemented by a CyberCentre providing cyber-related educational, entertainment and retail facilities to interface with the public. The Cyberport development will be supported by state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure and a wide range of hi-tech facilities such as multimedia laboratory, studios and content centre.

Situated in a campus-like environment, the Cyberport will be an ideal place for multinational corporations and promising local companies to cluster together to apply innovation and technology, to exchange ideas and expertise and to unleash creative synergy. Altogether, the Cyberport will provide over 110 000 square metres of office space to accommodate 150 to 200 companies of different sizes.

To date, 15 corporations have signed letters of intent to become anchor tenants. They are: Cisco, CMGI, Hewlett-Packard, Hikari Tsushin, Hua Wei, IBM, Legend, Microsoft, Oracle, Pacific Convergence Corporation, Portal, Silicon Graphics, Softbank, Sybase, and Yahoo! Over 190 other companies, local and overseas, have also registered their interest in becoming tenants. Selection of tenants will be advised by a committee comprising local, international and industry experts, based on the applications to be submitted by individual companies. The Cyberport project has already acted as a catalyst for local growth of the IT industry, and attracted global attention. Companies will start moving into the Cyberport in early 2002. Many new economic activities and job opportunities will be generated in the international IT centre to be developed in the Cyberport.