ENG-2002 — Page 436

COMMUNICATIONS, THE MEDIA AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

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and works with industry support organisations to provide support services to assist SMEs in adopting e-business.

To facilitate the development of e-business with Chinese communities outside Hong Kong, in particular the people in the Mainland, a simplified Chinese character version of government websites has been developed to enhance the accessibility of these communities to the websites. By a click of a button, people will be able to access a website in either a traditional or a simplified character version.

E-government

The Government is leading by example in the use of e-business, both to improve efficiency in conducting internal operations and to deliver one-stop, user-friendly and customer-centric public services to the business sector and the community. To gear up towards this vision, the E-government Coordination Office (EGCO) of the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau is driving forward E-government policies and joined-up government initiatives.

The overall target in E-government is to provide an electronic option (e-option) for 90 per cent of the public services amenable to the electronic mode of delivery by the end of 2003. As of December 2002, 81 per cent of such services have been provided with e-options, up from some 70 per cent a year earlier. The Government is also working towards the target of conducting 80 per cent of the Government's procurement tenders through electronic means by end-2003. Some of the government- wide or cross-departmental E-government projects being coordinated by the EGCO are as follows:-

(a) The Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) Scheme: through the ESD website (http://www.esd.gov.hk), citizens and businesses can access some 140 online public services round-the-clock in a one-stop and customer-centric way. In 2002, the Government launched a number of new ESD services, such as booking for sports and leisure facilities, registration to sit for public examinations, and search for bankruptcy/compulsory winding-up of companies. The ESD Scheme has become a popular website, attracting an average of over two million hits per day.

(b) Multiple Applications on the Smart Identity Card: the Government will start issuing the smart identity card in mid-2003. It will also launch the applications of a free digital certificate for all citizens and a library card on the smart identity card in mid-2003; with driving licence-related functions in 2005-06. There will also be capacity reserved for an e-purse. This initiative will create a critical mass of PKI users which will become an important infrastructure for the further development of E-government and e-commerce.

(c) Common Look and Feel for Government Websites: the Government has been progressively applying a 'Common Look and Feel' to all government websites from the fourth quarter of 2002. This will give all government websites a consistent brand image, facilitate navigation by the public and strengthen communication between the Government and the public.

(d) One-Stop Information Hub for Property Information: the proposed provision of a single point of access to property-related information kept by various departments would assist the public and the trade in accessing such information in a more transparent and convenient manner. The feasibility of this 'one-stop