IBM China / Hong Kong Limited
Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living
Consultancy Services for the Digital 21 Strategy
Review for the Office of the Government Chief
Information Officer
Strategy Report
September 2013
Consultancy Services for the Digital 21 Strategy Review
for the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer
Strategy Report
Distribution
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Copy No.
Holder
1
The Office of the Government Chief Information Office (OGCIO)
2
IBM China/Hong Kong Limited (IBM)
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Table of Contents
1.
Executive summary ............................................................................................................ 5
1.1
Previous Digital 21 Strategies ....................................................................................... 5
1.2
Latest technology developments ................................................................................... 6
1.3
SWOT analysis .............................................................................................................. 7
1.4
Vision – Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living ................................................................ 8
1.5
Strategic thrusts to deliver the vision of Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living .............. 9
1.6
Driving towards Smarter Hong Kong Smarter Living ................................................... 13
2.
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 14
2.1
Context......................................................................................................................... 14
2.2
Report .......................................................................................................................... 14
3.
Review of Hong Kong’s current ICT strategy and development ...................................... 16
3.1
Looking back ................................................................................................................ 16
3.2
Facilitating a digital economy ...................................................................................... 17
3.3
Promoting advanced technology and innovation ......................................................... 19
3.4
Developing Hong Kong as a hub for technological cooperation and trade ................. 23
3.5
Enabling the next generation of public services .......................................................... 24
3.6
Building an inclusive, knowledge-based society ......................................................... 31
3.7
Summary of achievements and improvement opportunities ....................................... 34
4.
Latest technology developments ..................................................................................... 35
4.1
Changes under way ..................................................................................................... 35
4.2
Technology trends ....................................................................................................... 35
4.3
A fundamental rethink of the way people live and work .............................................. 46
5.
SWOT analysis of ICT development ................................................................................ 48
5.1
SWOT context ............................................................................................................. 48
5.2
SWOT analysis ............................................................................................................ 49
5.3
SWOT analysis conclusion .......................................................................................... 54
6.
Vision – Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living .................................................................. 56
6.1
Articulating the vision ................................................................................................... 56
6.2
Anticipated impacts...................................................................................................... 57
7.
Strategic thrusts to achieve Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living ................................... 63
7.1
Overview ...................................................................................................................... 63
7.2
Empowering everyone through technology ................................................................. 64
7.3
Igniting business innovation through exploitation of technology ................................. 65
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7.4
Supporting a thriving Hong Kong ICT industry and research and development ......... 66
7.5
Transforming and integrating public services through technology .............................. 67
8.
Programmes in support of the strategic thrusts ............................................................... 68
8.1
Programmes ................................................................................................................ 68
8.2
Empowering everyone through technology ................................................................. 71
8.3
Igniting business innovation through exploitation of technology ................................. 87
8.4
Supporting a thriving Hong Kong ICT Industry and research and development ......... 95
8.5
Transforming and integrating public services through technology ............................ 111
9.
Summary ........................................................................................................................ 121
Appendix A – Acronyms ......................................................................................................... 122
Appendix B – Secondary source documents reviewed .......................................................... 124
Appendix C – Acknowledgement ............................................................................................ 127
Appendix D – ICT-related measures under the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic
Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) .......................................................................................... 129
Appendix E – Location of Wi-Fi hotspots in Hong Kong ......................................................... 130
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1.
Executive summary
Hong Kong was early to recognise the importance of information and communications
technology (ICT) developments. In 1998, the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region Government (the Government) published the first Digital 21 Strategy, which
was updated in 2001, 2004 and 2008. This study reviews the 2008 Digital 21 Strategy
and formulates a blueprint to steer and guide the development of ICT in Hong Kong for
the next few years.
1.1
Previous Digital 21 Strategies
The previous Digital 21 Strategies have enabled the establishment of a world-class ICT
infrastructure and have seen significant progress in many areas, including:
•
Robust and affordable communication networks
•
High mobile and broadband penetration and coverage
•
Relatively high usage of e-Government and e-Commerce services
•
Investments in cultivating innovation is contributing to Hong Kong’s vibrant digital
economy
•
Progress in securing digital inclusion for all groups
•
Steady progress in furthering Research and Development (R&D) initiatives – many
in collaboration with Mainland China.
Whilst Hong Kong has made significant progress in achieving objectives set by earlier
Digital 21 Strategies, advancement and consumerisation of ICT continues to drive
change in our daily lives at an accelerating pace, and the technology landscape today and over the next few years - is substantially different from when the last Digital 21
Strategy was published in 2008.
Recent radical developments in ICT have reshaped many industries, business models
and the interactions between people, businesses, and governments. Looking forward,
it is important to understand existing and upcoming ICT trends in order to appreciate
the array of potential enablement opportunities and challenges facing Hong Kong over
the next few years.
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1.2
Latest technology developments
Many opportunities and challenges, highly relevant to Hong Kong’s future digital
strategy, have recently emerged due to developments in mobile and cloud computing
technologies, Internet of Things, next generation workplace, big data and analytics and
social media.
1.2.1 Mobile
Recent years have seen an explosive growth in the proliferation of mobile devices and
consequently in mobile e-services too. Modern citizens have a rapidly growing
expectation to do anything at anytime and anywhere using their mobile devices and
therefore both businesses and governments have to rethink how they design and
deliver mobile e-services to customers and citizens.
1.2.2 Cloud computing
Cloud computing provides a scalable computing environment for businesses without
the need for them to own or manage the computing assets, which allows users to
request and utilise computing resources as a service whenever it is needed. One of the
most promising practical opportunities presented by this technology is the potential for
cloud platforms to offer small and medium enterprises (SMEs) a simple and
inexpensive way to harness computing resources for the direct benefit of their
businesses.
1.2.3 Internet of Things
Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the pervasive presence of connected devices such as
everyday objects embedded with Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, sensors,
and actuators, that have sensing, data capture and communication capabilities. These
everyday objects can connect to the Internet and with each other through a network to
form a global network of intelligent computer systems and devices.
1.2.4 Next generation workplace
Next generation workplace enables workers the ability to work anytime, anywhere, on
any trusted device, in any language. Social networking services with mobile
technologies will replace e-mail as the primary form of business communication and
workers will collaborate based on the ‘swarming’ work style where teams are formed
quickly to tackle a problem or an opportunity and then dissipate. Knowledge is
collective through mass collaboration and can be easily shared and accessed.
1.2.5 Big data and analytics
Big data is, in simple terms, an unprecedented massive collection of complex and large
data sets that are continually being accumulated from everywhere: sensors used to
gather climate information, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos,
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purchase transaction records, and mobile device Global Positioning System (GPS)
signals to name a few. And the types of data are becoming more diverse and varied.
The analysis of this big data can provide new and useful insights into all aspects of life
for the benefit of the whole community.
1.2.6 Social media
Social media allows people to create, share and consume information, ideas and
content through the Internet. The growth of social networks has risen almost
exponentially alongside Internet usage in the past number of years and is another
important irreversible trend which provides opportunities to create additional value
during the interactions with customers and/or citizens.
1.2.7 Implications of technology trends
These digital forces are changing how citizens live, how businesses work and how
governments serve. This radical shift requires business enterprises and government
agencies to fundamentally rethink the end-to-end experience for their customers and
citizens in addressing their new expectations, namely:
•
instant access to information, products and services
•
engagement as individuals, on their own terms – anytime and anywhere
•
transparency from businesses and government agencies they interact with
•
trusted, mutually beneficial relationships that go beyond one-time transactions
•
seamless experiences that deliver product and service quality.
1.3
SWOT analysis
Having looked back at the history of Digital 21 Strategies in Hong Kong and examined
the current and future major technology trends, it is pertinent to consider Hong Kong’s
unique advantages and disadvantages in the form of a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, threats) analysis – summarised in the table below.
Strengths





First class ICT infrastructure
Robust & reliable legal, business and
economic environment
Receptive market for innovative
products
Strong regional business hub
Strong reputation for commercialising
new developments in business and
technology
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Weaknesses




A relatively small domestic market
Many competing thriving sectors (e.g.
financial)
Shrinking manufacturing & industrial
sector
Shortage of land
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Opportunities




Growing opportunities in Mainland
China as its economy shifts from
exports to domestic consumption, the
services sector expands, and China’s
own exploitation of ICT grows rapidly
Huge possibilities presented by the
next generation of technology trends
(e.g. Cloud, Mobile, Big Data, Social
Media, Internet of Things)
International experience illustrates the
benefits of leveraging PSI datasets
more widely
Innovation in healthcare and elderly
services incentivised by the ageing
population
Threats



Competition from other Asian and
global economies – which are also
seeking to establish digital leadership
Uncertainties in the global economic
outlook
Risk of digital divide for those without
ICT access
In conclusion, Hong Kong has excellent hard and soft infrastructure and a population
with a strong global and regional reputation for trade and financial business acumen.
Although the domestic market is small, the opportunities arising from physical and
cultural proximity to Mainland China combined with the next generation of technology
trends provide potential for Hong Kong to thrive among other competitive economies.
1.4
Vision – Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living
We envision Hong Kong as a world-renowned smarter city where technology helps
improve quality of life by enabling:
•
Citizens and visitors to be more engaged with, and understood by, businesses and
government agencies through intelligent and interconnected touchpoints
•
Businesses to be more innovative in anticipating changing customer needs, and
growing and expanding beyond Hong Kong borders both physically and digitally
•
Hong Kong’s ICT industry to continue to be successful and reach new heights by
exploiting both the technology possibilities and the opportunities in the Mainland
•
The city to be more sustainable through smarter, interconnected infrastructure
•
The community to be more inclusive and prosperous through an open and
collaborative digital ecosystem
•
Hong Kong society to be more knowledge-based, with real-time access to
knowledge and information anytime, anywhere.
Technology can facilitate better communication and great collaboration between and
among Hong Kong’s citizens, businesses and government departments and should be
a means of support and assistance to disadvantaged groups in our society.
Under the new vision, we expect significant impact on various sectors in the Hong
Kong community as follows:
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For the Community, the achievement of the vision would mean having easy and
ready access to most public services and private sector services – generally available
on personal mobile devices from any location. The services will usually be highly
personalised to give richer user experiences and fully integrated for maximum
convenience.
For the business community, the smarter city would be able to build the necessary
infrastructure to enable fast ubiquitous high bandwidth access, extensive choice of ICT
services and platforms for trading and payment, for example. In addition, through the
broad promotion and adoption of e-commerce, businesses will further enhance their
capabilities in reaching to their customers more effectively and more broadly –
including crossing the border beyond Hong Kong and Mainland China.
For the ICT Industry, the smarter city is expected to drive further development of the
ICT industry, and by becoming a role model in exploiting technologies, Hong Kong will
provide unique opportunities to the local lCT industry. Hong Kong will provide the ecosystem to support the development of ICT startups and also the more mature services
and environment needed to encourage the development of City ICT champions
recognised as leaders in their fields both regionally and globally.
For the Government, the enhanced e-enabled public services will allow civil servants
to respond more effectively to citizens by offering more personalised and targeted
services. In particular, civil servants would be able to provide more face-to-face time in
consulting and helping citizens directly rather than spending time on administrative
matters.
For each of these four major constituents of Hong Kong society, we have proposed a
specific strategic thrust designed to deliver the Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living
vision.
1.5
Strategic thrusts to deliver the vision of Smarter Hong
Kong, Smarter Living
As the broad strategic programmes, we have designed the following four strategic
thrusts to drive Hong Kong towards the vision:
•
Empowering everyone through technology
•
Igniting business innovation through exploitation of technology
•
Supporting a thriving Hong Kong ICT industry and research and development
•
Transforming and integrating public services through technology.
Empowering everyone through technology
ICT now plays such an important part in every aspect of life – education, work, leisure,
entertainment, culture, arts, business and public services – that citizens can more
readily reach their full potential only when they have the confidence, literacy and basic
skills to access and use technology.
In order to achieve the vision, it is vital to ensure that everyone has these basic
capabilities to operate and live in an ICT-rich environment. This strategic thrust also
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drives the availability of high bandwidth Internet access through wired, mobile and/or
other wireless mechanisms throughout all the main areas of the city.
While the primary focus of the vision outlined in this report is the people of Hong Kong,
there is also an opportunity to significantly improve the experience of people visiting
Hong Kong – whether for business, tourism or visiting friends and family. Another
important concern is to include and enable the participation of all groups in this new
digital environment – also specifically considering the elderly, people with disabilities,
those with less / limited financial means, etc. It is also important to look at the
possibilities for technology to improve the quality of life for disadvantaged groups – for
example better facilitate people with disabilities to find and make their way around the
city.
To support the realisation of this thrust, the key initiatives include:
•
Providing every citizen with a free and universal Hong Kong Digital ID –
enables every citizen to conveniently and securely use a much broader range of
smarter city e-services (that are more personalised and richer in function) to
process everyday transactions (e.g. e-cheques)
•
Facilitating access to technology and broadband – aims to remove the barriers
that may prevent citizens from enjoying the benefit of living in one of the leading
digital cities in the world
•
Boosting education by enabling e-learning for the whole curriculum in every
classroom through high bandwidth access for all schools – truly revolutionises
the experience and quality of learning for students in Hong Kong by allowing multimedia online access to relevant multi-lingual courses, teaching materials, test
evaluations and other collaborative e-learning tools; and liberates teaching
professionals to devote more focused attention on individual students to drive
enhanced learning outcomes
•
Including elements of programming in every child’s education programme to
inculcate a generic logical mindset and a proclivity to look to ICT for
solutions – provides an exciting new way to help our children to become familiar
with harnessing the immense power of technology, to personally develop creative
solutions to everyday problems and to be trained in structured and logical thinking
•
Providing visitors and citizens targeted information – enriches the engagement
of visitors and citizens via advanced, personalised and multi-media online
experiences; and maximises each visitor’s and citizen’s enjoyment and
convenience.
Igniting business innovation through exploitation of technology
Some of the most exciting and influential business developments in recent years
(including Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Amazon and Alibaba), have arisen, not from
new technological inventions as such, but from inspired new ideas about how to exploit
technology.
This strategic thrust strives to establish new ways to ignite, nurture and protect such
innovative ideas and to create new collaborative environments where these ideas can
be shared, exchanged and further developed into potential business innovations with
meaningful economic value for Hong Kong.
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The variety and volume of business innovations can be further strengthened by
opening up all public sector information (PSI) for use by ICT-savvy entrepreneurs. For
example, experience in the US has shown how broad PSI sharing can electrify public
interest and excitement in the development of new mobile apps which make innovative
use of this information.
To support the realisation of this thrust, the key initiatives include:
•
Establishing innovation and collaboration platforms to accelerate innovative
business applications of technology to boost Hong Kong’s competitive
edge – fosters creative and innovative communities to drive vibrant exchange of
ideas, leading to the development of exciting and valuable new ICT-enabled
business models / solutions
•
Promoting cloud platforms and knowledge sharing for small and medium
enterprises to help them succeed through increased leveraging of
technology – seeks new ways to stimulate SMEs to increase practical use of new
technologies in order to boost productivity, to achieve greater business success
and to expand employment opportunities for the community
•
Accelerating innovation by making all public sector information available for
use by private and other non-government sectors – unlocks the hidden treasure
trove of PSI datasets for free use by ICT-savvy entrepreneurs, enabling them to
create innovative new applications (with an emphasis on the mobile variety) for use
in Hong Kong and, where proven successful here, potentially for the international
market.
Supporting a thriving Hong Kong ICT industry and research and
development
As outlined in the SWOT analysis, Hong Kong’s open and transparent governmental
framework and excellent ICT infrastructure make Hong Kong a fertile ground for ICT
entrepreneurs to grow their innovative ideas into thriving ICT business startups. The
unique advantages of close proximity to Mainland China coupled with Hong Kong’s
longstanding tradition as an important regional business hub can help shape a unique
flavour to Hong Kong’s emerging ICT industry.
This strategic thrust addresses the challenges of how to grow a unique thriving ICT
industry in Hong Kong - helping to translate innovation and research into business
opportunities and economic value.
The attraction and retention of the right ICT talent is a critical first component to this
proposition. In association with the innovative environment mentioned in the previous
strategic thrust, the right quantum of human capital and talent will provide the
intellectual engine required to drive the ICT industry and ultimately help to create ICT
champions in Hong Kong.
Although we recognise that Hong Kong has a small domestic market, the opportunities
arising from collaboration with Mainland are manifold – especially for Research and
Development (R&D). Meanwhile the prevalence of design talent and the extraordinary
mobile penetration in Hong Kong suggests that the unique flavour of the Hong Kong
ICT industry could help establish Hong Kong as a Mobile Centre of Excellence and a
Digital Media Centre of Excellence.
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One measure of success for Hong Kong will be any measurable increase in the
number of business startups at the intersection of business and technology and the
emergence of potential ICT champions, amidst a competitive marketplace for talent
and ideas.
To support the realisation of this thrust, the key initiatives include:
•
Supporting the evolving ecosystem to groom technology startups – creates
the culture and environment to bring together all the necessary ingredients for
successful growth of new start-ups at the intersection of business and technology
to foster the emergence of Hong ICT champions
•
Growing top talent in ICT and business technology application – puts in place
the right professional frameworks and provides more focused training in
collaboration with ICT industry leaders – for the mutual advantage of prospective
employers and employees alike
•
Establishing Hong Kong as a Centre of Excellence for Multi-Platform Apps –
actively facilitates and encourages more business opportunities, events and
competitions for multi-platform solutions
•
Continuing to develop Cloud Computing and Data Centre Hub – tries more
effective promotion methods for cloud computing and data centre provisioning
•
Exploiting convergence to combine Hong Kong’s strengths in the media,
creative and technology industries to make the city a Centre of Excellence in
Digital Media – builds a collaborative and innovative platform for professionals,
amateurs and regular citizens to innovate, co-create and distribute new content
through the latest digital media
•
Continuing to leverage Hong Kong’s unique position by enabling ICT
businesses to access Mainland opportunities – seizes full advantage of the
physical and cultural proximity to expand the market for highly-prized solutions and
services derived from Hong Kong’s business acumen and technological innovation
into the Mainland
Transforming and integrating public services through technology
Over the last decade, e-Government services have evolved from the online provision of
static historical public information to a more citizen-centric interactive multi-media twoway customer experience – for both citizens and businesses. New and emerging
technologies are exponentially expanding governments’ capacity to provide next
generation public services.
This strategic thrust seeks to build upon the Hong Kong Government’s achievements in
evolving its services and interaction relationships with the community. Mobile
technologies, in particular, offer a transformational channel for more personalised
anytime and anywhere services. With the highest mobile penetration rate in the world,
Hong Kong is ideally placed to take the next step from e-Government to mobile
government, fundamentally transforming the delivery and coverage of public services.
The key benefit is that mobile government offers a better, more convenient, more
integrated and wider range of services which can be highly personalised and locationsensitive. Through the shift from e-Government to mobile government and a continued
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acceleration of mobile penetration, there is an expectation that public services should
be mobile as a default.
At the same time, the Smarter City provides an explosion in volumes of real-time data
through intelligent sensors which offer valuable real-time multi-media location-sensitive
information that can be instantly communicated to citizens through their mobile devices.
To support the realisation of this thrust, key initiatives include:
•
Delivering mobile government to citizens and businesses at their fingertips –
easy access anywhere, anytime – makes multi-platform the default channels of
choice for online e-services – to increase service quality, to delight and to increase
productivity of the world’s number-one “mobile community”
•
Integrating and targeting services tailoring to individual needs – designs and
delivers more personalised e-services – tailored to match individual needs and
personal requirements – to provide the type of service excellence and operational
efficiency for citizens and businesses in Hong Kong
•
Establishing a Smarter City infrastructure through further digitisation and
Internet of Things and utilise Big Data to manage the thriving and growing
city – expands the coverage of sensory and other intelligent devices and further
exploit other digitisation technologies throughout the smarter city – then synthesise
and analyse the mass of resulting data to produce insights and solutions for the
benefit of the community as a whole.
1.6
Driving towards Smarter Hong Kong Smarter Living
This report sets out a vision and blueprint to steer and guide the development of ICT in
Hong Kong over the next few years, and proposes a set of strategic thrusts and
supporting initiatives to drive towards the achievement of the vision of Smarter Hong
Kong, Smarter Living.
A further level of detail, linking areas of action to each initiative, is provided in Chapter
8 of this report.
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2.
Introduction
2.1
Context
Globally, Information and Communications Technology (ICT, such as the Internet,
broadband and mobile technologies) continues to transform the way that people live,
spend their leisure time, work and consume products and services. The impact has
become all the more fundamental as ICT has become mobile, and as more of the
infrastructure and things around us have become instrumented and interconnected.
Hong Kong was early to recognise the importance of ICT developments and the
potential contribution that technologies could make to Hong Kong’s continued success.
In 1998, the first Digital 21 Strategy was published by the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region Government (the Government) to set out the vision of Hong
Kong as a digital city. As the needs of community changed and the technology
advanced over the next decade, the Strategy was updated in 2001, 2004 and 2008.
The Digital 21 Strategy has served Hong Kong well, and in the light of the scale of the
changes during the currency of the different editions of the strategy, and the progress
made, the Government has embarked on a more extensive review of the current
position in Hong Kong, the role of ICT, international developments, the future strategy
Hong Kong should adopt and the programmes and actions the Government and others
should take to ensure that Hong Kong is able to fully exploit the benefits of ICT in
future. Of course Hong Kong’s success in the effective exploitation of ICT rests on the
contributions of many organisations and indeed the community as a whole. This
strategy review both looks at the actions the Government can take, and how it can
work with other important stakeholders and enable them to make their full contributions.
2.2 Report
‘Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living’ is the strategy for the overall ICT development in
Hong Kong in the next few years. It moves away from a particular date or century and
reflects that ICT or digital developments are now integrated with every aspect of Hong
Kong’s community, economy and public sector so the strategy is not so much a
separate digital programme. Of course, it continues to be very important to have a
clear blueprint, actions and timescales for the programme itself, and we recommend
the approach to this later in our report.
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Figure 1 Formulation of vision and strategic thrusts
Latest technology
development
Strength
Review of Hong Kong’s
current ICT strategy and
development
Review & Trends
(chapter 3 & 4)
Weakness
SWOT analysis
(chapter 5)
Opportunity
Threats
Vision
(chapter 6)
Vision
Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living
Empowering
everyone
through
technology
Igniting
business
innovation
through
exploitation of
technology
Supporting a
thriving Hong
Kong ICT
industry and
R&D
Transforming
and integrating
public services
through
technology
Strategic Thrusts
(chapter 7)
IBM would like to express its gratitude to all those who helped and shared their views
in the course of this study.
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3.
Review of Hong Kong’s current ICT strategy and
development
3.1 Looking back
The previous Digital 21 Strategies have enabled the establishment of a strong
foundation for Hong Kong’s exploitation of ICT, namely robust and affordable
communication networks, relatively high usage of e-Government and e-Commerce
services, progress in securing digital inclusion for all groups, and a successful and
expanding ICT industry. The diagram below illustrates how each edition of the Digital
21 Strategy has built on the previous progress and taken Hong Kong from foundation,
to connection, to acceleration and digitisation.
Figure 2 Highlight of past Digital 21 Strategies
1998
 High capacity communications systems
 Common software interface for secure
electronic transactions
 People who know how to use IT
 A cultural environment that stimulates
creativity and welcomes advances in the
use of IT
2001
 To enhance the world class e-business
environment in Hong Kong
 To ensure that the Hong Kong
Government leads by example
 To develop Hong Kong's workforce for the
information economy
 To strengthen the Hong Kong community
for digital exploitation
 To leverage Hong Kong's strengths in
exploitation of enabling technologies
Acceleration
Foundation
Connection
2004








Digitisation
2008
 Facilitating a digital economy
 Promoting advanced technology and innovation
 Developing Hong Kong as a hub for technological
cooperation and trade
 Enabling the next generation of public services
 Building an inclusive, knowledge-based society
Government leadership
Sustainable e-government programme
Infrastructure and business environment
Institutional review
Technological development
Vibrant IT industry
Human resources in a knowledge economy
Bridging the digital divide
Our review of the outcomes of the 2008 Digital 21 Strategy has confirmed significant
achievements in the last few years and, at the same time, has identified areas that
could be further developed. The following paragraphs examine the results against each
of the five key focus areas in the 2008 Strategy.
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3.2 Facilitating a digital economy
Government continues to play a significant role as a user, supplier and facilitator of ICT
and its applications and of bringing together relevant stakeholders in the community
High mobile and broadband penetration
Since 2008, through the facilitation of the Communications Authority, Hong Kong has
continued to increase its household broadband penetration from 75% to 85.5% (as of
March 2013). Meanwhile its mobile penetration rate has rocketed from around 140%
to just under 228.4% (as of March 2013) 1. It is among the world’s highest, representing
a significant margin of difference with neighbouring Asian economies (see figure 3
below). The average peak Internet connection speed of 57.5 Mbps is the fastest in the
world and average Internet connection speed of 9.3 Mbps is also among the fastest. 2
Figure 3 Mobile penetration rates in neighbouring economies (2008 - 2013)
250%
Hong Kong
Penetration rate
200%
Singapore
150%
Taiw an
South Korea
100%
50%
0%
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Reference: IBM analysis, Office of the Communications Authority, iDA (Singapore), “Ministry of Economic Affairs”
(Taiwan), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Continued increase of ICT expenditure within the Government
It is Government’s objective to make the best use of ICT to enhance internal
operational efficiency and improve service provision. The following table shows the
Government’s IT expenditure since 2001 and demonstrates a marked increase in ICT
expenditure since 2008.
1
Reference: Office of the Communications Authority, “Key Communications Statistics”
(http://www.ofca.gov.hk/en/media_focus/data_statistics/key_stat/index.html), Figures as of March 2013
2
Reference: Akamai, “State of the Internet, 4th Quarter, 2012 Report”
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Figure 4 Historical Government ICT expenditure
Million HKD
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
2013-14 (budgeted)
2012-13
2011-12
2010-11
2009-10
2008-09
0
Reference: OGCIO official website – Facts & Figures, “Government IT Expenditure”. Last updated 31 May 2013.
Top rankings in competitiveness and affordability
Hong Kong continues to be recognised for its ICT development and innovation
amongst other advanced economies, as demonstrated in the selected rankings below.
These rankings also highlight the gaps that exist between Hong Kong and other
developed and developing countries based on criteria such as ICT infrastructure,
innovation, and competitiveness.
Table 1 Hong Kong’s ranking results in selected international ICT rankings
Source
International Ranking
The International Institute for Management
Development (IMD) – World Competitiveness
Yearbook 2013
3rd
INSEAD and World Economic Forum (WEF) –
Global Information Technology Report 2013
1st in International Internet
Bandwidth
2nd in Business and innovation
environment
3rd in Mobile tariffs affordability
th
Global Innovation Index 2013
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7 worldwide
st
1 I in Asia
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These rankings clearly show the strength of Hong Kong’s ICT infrastructure which is a
critical factor in facilitating the development of the digital economy.
Conclusion
Through Government facilitation in the highly liberalised market, various
telecommunications, broadband and mobile service carriers are building Hong Kong’s
ICT infrastructure as one of the world’s best. Also by leading as example, the
Government has continued to increase its ICT spending in the recent years. However,
given the speed of development in technology and the increasing demand for easy and
convenient access (anywhere and anytime) and faster service, combined with rapidly
multiplying volumes of data, Hong Kong will need to continue to focus on building its
technology infrastructure to support future growth.
3.3 Promoting advanced technology and innovation
Maintaining Hong Kong’s edge as a world smarter city for technology adoption and
innovation
Research and Development (R&D) expenditure
The figure below shows the overall trends in Hong Kong’s R&D expenditure between
2007 and 2011. While public sector R&D investment grew by over 20% in this period,
private sector R&D expenditure over the same period has stagnated. Hong Kong’s
overall R&D expenditure as a percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP) is less
than 1% which compares unfavourably with neighbouring economies such as South
Korea or Singapore, which are close to 3%.
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Figure 5 Hong Kong R&D expenditure (2007 -2011)
Public sector R&D
Private sector R&D
(in m illion HKD)
9,000
8,000
7,359
7,751
7,545
7,028
7,000
6,352
6,055
6,194
6,000
5,265
5,474
5,767
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Reference: Census and Statistics Department, “Hong Kong Innovation Activities Statistics 2011”
Facilities for innovation
Hong Kong has made steady progress in furthering its R&D efforts and capability. For
example, the Hong Kong Science Park is developing its phase 3 expansion, increasing
the park size by 50% to accommodate 150 additional companies and create 4,000
research-related jobs. This new phase will be completed in stages from 2014 to 2016.
Cyberport continues to be an important facility for promoting and supporting new and
emerging ICT-related enterprises in Hong Kong. For example it has recently sponsored
the Mobility Experience Centre (MEC), which is an exchange platform for new
technology concepts and mobile experience intended to provide advice to small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) on utilising mobile technology to enhance their working
environment and generate business opportunities.
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The following table shows some core statistics about the ongoing Cyberport Incubation
Programme and two other initiatives in Cyberport.
Table 2 Progress of the Cyberport Incubation Programme (as of March 2013)
No. of companies admitted
189
No. of patents, registered designs and
trademarks granted to incubatees
103
No. of awards granted to incubatees
106
Amount of angel investment funding
attracted to the incubatees
HKD 55 million
Reference: Figures provided by Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited
This programme provides incubatees with access to advanced facilities and resources,
support in business development, financing and hiring of graduate interns, as well as
entrepreneurship and technology training. On-site incubatees are also granted a rentfree office. The Programme provides an incentive for other world-class companies and
clusters to develop business partnership with Cyberport tenants and incubatees. The
level of intellectual property generated and the size of the angel investment funding
attracted give encouraging signs of the benefits of this programme.
Table 3 Progress of the Cyberport Creative Micro Fund (as of March 2013)
Amount of funds granted (Hong Kong
dollars)
6.3 million
No. of projects supported
Successful completion rate of projects
63
3
95%
Reference: Figures provided by Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited
3
Successful completion of projects refers to the fulfilment of the target outcomes and milestones in the project proposal
approved. They are projects that could successfully develop ICT-related business ideas into viable commercial
businesses. Many successful CCMF grantees subsequently joined the Cyberport Incubation Programme to further
develop their business.
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Launched in August 2009, the Cyberport Creative Micro Fund (CCMF) Scheme
promotes innovation within the ICT industry by providing seed funding of HK$100,000
to cover concept and prototype development over a 6-month period to companies
spearheading the development of creative ICT-related products or services. Some
projects supported by CCMF were subsequently procured by major overseas
enterprises.
Such investments in physical facilities and centres can take time to generate outcomes,
but early signs of success can be seen from the presentation of 5 Grand Awards and 6
Merits of Asia Pacific Information and Communications Technology Awards (APICTA)
in 2012 to Hong Kong enterprises, with particularly impressive contributions made to eHealth and to media and entertainment sectors.
Adopting Open Source Software (OSS)
Government departments have been progressively installing OSS-based systems
where OSS represents the most cost-effective solution. Adoption of open source in
the new e-Government Infrastructure Service (new EGIS), which targets for Platformas-a-Service delivery, is mainly on application server software. Given the rate of OSS
adoption, over 50% of the e-services of EGIS III are / will be using JBoss (OSS) as
their application server software. As of December 2007, there are around 4,317 OSSbased computers used in 50 Government departments (over 50% of all government
departments). The total number of OSS-based computers has increased from 3,440 in
December 2006 to 4,317 in December 2007, representing a 25% increase. This
reflects that the government departments adopt an open position in the choice of
software products and the adoption of OSS has been increasing. They are mainly
deployed as web, database, e-mail, security, proxy servers and for office systems.
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Utilising Public Sector Information
Another important area for promoting innovation is the re-use of Public Sector
Information (PSI). The Government rolled out the Data.One portal in March 2011 to
create a central platform for disseminating PSI in machine-readable formats to facilitate
value-added re-use. It leverages on community wisdom and technological
advancements to bring convenience to the public and facilitate business in a costeffective and creative way. Responses have been encouraging that many mobile
applications have been developed using this source of data. The most popular PSI
dataset, with over 700,000 daily downloads recorded to date, is the traffic snapshot
data. The snapshot data provides real-time road traffic information and thus lends itself
well to helping Hong Kong drivers to plan and optimise their car journey routes. The
Government has also opened up another 11 categories of PSI, and is aiming for more.
For information which is open to the public free of charge, it should also be made
available in machine-readable formats on Data.One for free re-use.
Conclusion
While significant progress has been achieved in promoting advanced technology and
innovation since 2008, the relatively low level of private sector R&D investment in Hong
Kong is an area for attention in terms of formulating Hong Kong’s next ICT blueprint.
One challenge for further consideration is that, because of Hong Kong’s shortage of
land and a small domestic market, ICT startups often find it difficult to scale up due to
high initial costs. Also the ICT industry is competing for the best and the brightest
minds with other business sectors in Hong Kong e.g. financial services. Globally, Asian
and other economies are seeking to establish digital leadership to enhance competitive
advantage in the new digital age. These factors pose a challenge for Hong Kong to
maintain its lead in advanced technology and innovation.
3.4 Developing Hong Kong as a hub for technological
cooperation and trade
Harnessing Hong Kong’s role as a two-way platform for Mainland enterprises and
fostering a vibrant ICT industry
Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)
CEPA offers specific opportunities for Hong Kong’s ICT industry in seeking to explore
further economic collaboration with the Mainland. For Hong Kong ICT services
suppliers, they are allowed to set up joint venture enterprises to provide database
services and set up wholly-owned enterprises to provide data processing and software
implementation services. For Hong Kong, residents, they are allowed to take computer
technology and software proficiency examinations. The full list of ICT-related CEPA
measures are at Appendix D.
Going forward, cross-boundary electronic commerce mutual recognition of electronic
signature certificates will be developed to further expand both Hong Kong and
Mainland’s digital economies.
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Collaboration projects and platforms
IBM’s research shows that innovation creates the most value at the intersection of
business and technology insight, and through collaboration. Many R&D collaboration
platforms have been set up to promote collaboration between Hong Kong and the
Mainland at the central, provincial and municipal levels. Examples include the
Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovation Circle and the Guangdong/Hong Kong Technology
Cooperation Funding Scheme (TCFS) which embraces ICT R&D. Over 40 joint
projects with a total funding of over $250 million have been approved for supporting
R&D collaboration between universities, research institutes and technology companies
in the two places.
Facilities for collaborative ICT and R&D
Within the last two years, four Hong Kong universities have established their industry,
academic and research bases in the High-Tech Zone of Nanshan District in Shenzhen
to conduct R&D and collaborate with their Mainland counterparts.
There are currently 12 laboratories in Hong Kong that have gained the status of
Partner State Key Laboratories (PSKLs) by pairing up with the SKLs in the Mainland.
Some of them are actively conducting cutting-edge ICT related research.
Conclusion
There are encouraging signs of greater collaboration with the Mainland, on R&D
activity in particular, which occurred over the last few years. The CEPA provisions
continue to provide opportunities for greater economic collaboration going forward.
3.5 Enabling the next generation of public services
Using ICT to improve public service delivery
The figure below shows the dramatic increase in the number of e-Government
information enquiries and transactions within Hong Kong in recent years, which
signifies the readiness and willingness of Hong Kong citizens to embrace technology
and make greater use of public e-services.
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Figure 6 Number of e-Government transactions and information enquiries
(in m illions)
14,000
12,912
12,000
10,000
8,000
5,536
6,000
3,431
4,000
2,000
0
2010
Transactions
2011
2012
Information enquiries
Reference: Figures from internal surveys done by OGCIO (started in year 2010)
In common with other developed economies, Hong Kong should anticipate the public’s
rising expectation for more and higher quality public e-services, partly fuelled by
citizens’ positive experience of e-services available in the commercial sector. Therefore
it is important that Government is prepared to provide public services that are more
integrated around the needs of the citizens and more personalised to their
circumstances.
e-Government services
ICT exploitation offers the Government opportunities to increase understanding of
citizens and issues through better, more timely analysis. This provides the Government
with the means to anticipate and address issues early rather than making a lagging
response to demand. Over the years since the first Internet services, Hong Kong’s eGovernment services have evolved from simple department-based information
websites through to more integrated citizen-centric e-services that have greater
interaction with the user. This evolutionary process is amply demonstrated by GovHK,
which was the Government’s first step in providing a “one stop shop” for public eservices in 2007. The figure below illustrates how this has since evolved into MyGovHK,
an integrated and personalised portal for citizen-centric e-Government services. A
mobile version is planned to be launched by the end of 2013.
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Figure 7 Development timeline of e-Government
Table 4 GovHK statistics (as of May 2013)
Traffic ranking in Hong Kong
112
Average number of daily visits to the desktop
version (www.gov.hk)
74,983
Average number of daily visits to the mobile
version (m.www.gov.hk)
20,305
Reference: Figures from internal survey done by OGCIO
Figure 8 Average numbers of daily visits to GovHK
100,000
1,609
3,738
10,438
Mobile version
75,000
Desktop version
50,000
66,312
68,109
70,854
2010
2011
2012
46,819
25,000
22,800
0
2008
2009
Reference: Figures from internal survey done by OGCIO
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There have been more examples of recent progress on e-Government services:
•
Customs and Excise Department redeveloped the Air Cargo Clearance System in
late 2010 to provide faster customs clearance, enhance its cargo handling capacity,
improve security and accuracy in cargo selection, and achieve more efficient
analysis of data including the smuggling trend. It also fully rolled out the Road
Cargo System in late 2011 to facilitate electronic customs clearance. The
utilisation of the latter reached 36 million in 2012, which is 4.6 times that of 2011.
•
Ration and Valuation Department (RVD) launched the eRVD Bill service in late
2010, allowing the public to receive the quarterly demands for rates and/or
Government rent via the Internet in advance of the paper bills. It notifies users on
issuance of electronic demands and may remind users of the payment due date.
•
With the one-stop service for electronic company incorporation and business
registration co-launched by Companies Registry and Inland Revenue Department
in mid 2012, local and overseas investors can now start businesses less than one
hour. The new service streamlines and automates the two departments’ business
processes to facilitate business startups in Hong Kong. It also allows submission of
15 commonly filed statutory returns for companies.
•
Leisure and Cultural Services Department completed in late 2011 Phase 1 of the
Next Generation Integrated Library System that allows searching, reservation,
borrowing and renewal of library materials through different platforms, and piloted
the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in selected branch libraries.
The implementation of Phase 2 has commenced, progressively rolling out such
new functions and services as self-service printing, e-payment, customer
relationship management, virtual reference service, electronic resources
management, inter-library loan, and management information system.
•
Development of the first stage of the territory-wide patient-oriented Electronic
Health Record (eHR) Sharing System is in progress, with public consultation on the
Legal, Privacy and Security Framework being conducted. Subject to the enactment
of the eHR legislation, the eHR Sharing System is planned for rollout by the end of
2014.
More examples and relevant information on the planning and progress can be found
online. 4
The following figure illustrates the relative usage of the top ten most popular etransaction and information enquiry public services in Hong Kong. It is interesting to
note the variety and functional diversity of these e-services ranging from tracking of
international Speedpost deliveries to library book online reservation and renewals.
4
Reference: Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting (Papers), http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr1112/english/panels/itb/papers/itb_eb.htm
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Figure 9 Top 10 most popular transactional e-services in the period from 1 January to 31 December 2012
Reference: Figures from internal survey done by OGCIO
Figure 10 Top 10 most popular informational e-services in the period from 1 January to 31 December 2012
Reference: Figures from internal survey done by OGCIO
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Mobile applications (apps)
Mobile services transform how government provide services by making them even
more accessible and citizen-centric through the remote delivery of government
services and information to those who are unable or unwilling to access public services
through traditional means or the Internet. In theory, many government services can
now be available on a 24x7x365 basis at any place in the world covered by mobile
networks.
Mobile versions of e-Government services, such as the GovHK Notifications and Tell
me@1823 mobile apps, have been rolled out to provide anytime/anywhere two-way
communications between the Government and the public. In one way, GovHK
Notifications provides a one-stop platform for citizens to receive notifications from
various Government departments at their choice. In the other way, Tell me@1823 colaunched by GovHK and the Efficiency Unit allows members of the public to submit
enquiries, information and comments to the Government with texts, photographs,
voice/video recordings and their GPS location. This helps the Government better be
more responsive to public needs and concerns, and enhance public services.
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As of May 2013, the Government has developed 59 mobile websites and 56 mobile
apps, three of which are cross-departmental, including the above-mentioned GovHK
Notifications, GovHK Apps and EventHK. 26 Government departments have developed
mobile apps and 32 Government departments have developed mobile websites as
other electronic channels to deliver their services to the public.
The most popular of all Government information e-Services is the “MyObservatory”
mobile app which jumped from 1.9 billion visitors in 2011 to 9.2 billion in 2012
Internal operations and administrative support
Government departments have been adopting ICT more widely to improve efficiency
and streamline their operations. For example, Fire Services Department fully rolled out
a computerised Integrated Licensing, Fire Safety and Prosecution System in mid-2012
to enhance the effectiveness of sharing fire protection information among various units
and for handling applications relating to licensed premises. It features a mobile
working platform for fire officers to check and input case-related data during fieldwork.
The Customs and Excise Department has also replaced its Case Processing System to
support the processing of cases for around 1,700 internal users comprising both
disciplined and civilian staff. It provides computerised analysis tools and supports epayment on excessive dutiable commodities at customs control points. Some
Government departments are also exploring the use of analytics to help improve
performance.
As a joined-up initiative, the Government Cloud Platform (GovCloud) is being
developed to support the hosting of common shared services, including electronic
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information management (EIM), human resources management and electronic
procurement which will be made available to Government departments in a flexible and
cost-effective way starting late 2013.
On the policy front, a Government-wide EIM strategy and framework has been
promulgated to Government departments. The aim is to guide departmental EIM
strategy development and drive EIM implementation in Government departments in a
consistent manner to achieve better content, records and knowledge management
across the Government as a whole.
Conclusion
The volume and variety of Government e-services has continued to grow since 2008
and we can expect increasing public expectation and demand for even more eGovernment services in the future, particularly for those mobile e-services where
citizens can enjoy more integrated and personalised experiences delivered to them “on
the go”. Besides adding new services based on the known demand voiced out by the
citizens, the Government could consider formulating cross-departmental initiatives to
explore and exploit the vast data collected for proactively developing new e-services.
3.6 Building an inclusive, knowledge-based society
Ensuring that the benefits of ICT adoption are widely available to all segments of the
community
A Task Force on Digital Inclusion under the Digital 21 Strategy Advisory Committee
was established to assist in formulating strategies and initiatives to address digital
inclusion issues in Hong Kong. Under the steering of the Task Force, the Government
has adopted a multi-pronged approach to drive wider adoption and more innovative
use of ICT by disadvantaged groups to realise the full potential of the information
society.
Government Wi-Fi Programme
Since 2009, the Government Wi-Fi Programme (GovWiFi) has implemented over 2,200
hotspots at around 410 designated Government premises to provide free Wi-Fi access
to the public.
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Digital inclusion programmes
The Government has launched a number of significant programmes to promote digital
inclusion and adopted a targeted approach, focusing on three priority groups. These
groups are: students from low-income families, persons with disabilities and the elderly.
The Web Accessibility Campaign and the first government-led Web Accessibility
Recognition Scheme were launched to promote the adoption of web accessibility
design to facilitate access to online information and services for all, including persons
with disabilities. To set an example, all government websites are required to conform to
Level AA standard of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0)
promulgated by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) by 2013 within all practicable
means. The Government has also funded many development projects for ICT-based
assistive tools and applications for disadvantaged groups including persons with
disabilities.
With regards to students from low-income families, the five-year “i Learn at Home”
Internet Learning Support Programme was launched in July 2011 to assist them to
undertake web-based learning at home. As of 31 March 2013, 65,904 (23.4%) out of
the 282,000 eligible families have enrolled in the programme and 17,652 have received
at least one type of services. 5
5
Reference: http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr12-13/english/panels/itb/papers/itb0610cb4-711-4-e.pdf
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Lastly, the Government has also
introduced a comprehensive set of
programmes for the elderly. For example,
the eElderly portal was launched in 2009
to encourage elderly people to become
familiar and make better use of ICT. The
first territory-wide Smart Elderly Awards
recognition Scheme was launched in late
2012 to show appreciation and
recognition to those elderly who use ICT
actively in their daily lives. At the other
end of the age spectrum, the Youth.gov.hk portal was launched to engage young
people aged between 15 and 24 with services and opportunities. These are just some
of the examples of how the Government used ICT to build an inclusive, knowledgebased society.
The use of ICT among the elderly and persons with disabilities has shown signs of
improvement since the last Digital 21 Strategy was published in 2008 (as shown in the
graph below).
Figure 11 Percentage of computer usage among various groups in the society
Mainstream community
Persons with disabilities
Elderly
Reference: OGCIO, “Study on Digital Inclusiveness in Hong Kong”
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Conclusion
There have been many initiatives undertaken by the Government to stimulate greater
digital inclusion amongst disadvantaged groups. The higher indicators of digital
inclusion since 2008, particularly for the elderly, are encouraging. The Government
should continue the effort to implement more targeted digital inclusion initiatives to
further narrow down the digital gap for elderly and persons with disabilities.
3.7 Summary of achievements and improvement opportunities
Hong Kong has been successful in establishing a world-class ICT infrastructure and
has made significant progress in many areas:
•
The City has seen high mobile and broadband penetration and is ranked highly for
competition and mobile affordability
•
There is steady progress in furthering its R&D efforts and capability with the
support of significant investment in facilities and application of public sector
information (PSI)
•
Many R&D collaboration platforms have been set up to promote collaboration
between Hong Kong and Mainland China
•
Public services are provided via integrated and targeted means such as GovHK
and MyGovHK portals, and various mobile apps
•
A number of assistance programmes have been created to narrow the digital divide.
External forces such as talent competition, small domestic market, uncertainty of global
economic outlook and the risk of digital exclusion prompt us to further explore how the
new strategy could transform the development of ICT in Hong Kong in the next few
years.
Meanwhile the development and expansion of technology continues to drive change in
all our daily lives at an accelerating pace and the technology landscape today - and
over the next few years – is substantially different from when the 2008 Digital 21
Strategy was published.
The next chapter examines the significant changes and shifts that are under way which
have been caused by technology trends.
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4.
Latest technology developments
4.1 Changes under way
As mentioned in the previous section, whilst Hong Kong has made significant progress
in each of the five focus areas since the promulgation of the last Digital 21 Strategy,
technology has not stood still. Developments in technology have reshaped many
industries, business models and the interactions between people, businesses and
governments.
This chapter introduces a number of trends that are likely to be driving ICT technology
development in the immediate, medium and long term in the coming few years and
beyond. It begins with the most immediate trends around mobile and cloud computing.
These technologies have already achieved a high level of maturity and are well
received by consumers as well as businesses and governments. However this “Nexus
of Forces” 6, will certainly evolve and be a significant influence on consumers, citizens,
businesses and governments alike.
In the medium term, with the real-time capture, creation and accumulation of data, and
creation of far more diverse types of data from structured data (e.g. banking records) to
streaming and unstructured data (e.g. digital pictures, video, free texts), the world is
now dealing with an unprecedented volume of digital data. At the same time, we
anticipate we will be reaching a tipping point and moving towards an age in which
information is abundant. This could help businesses and governments understand their
customers and citizens far more comprehensively than before. There are plenty of new
possibilities to develop more targeted products and services to meet the most critical
needs of customers and citizens and ensure the right resources are used to achieve
the objectives at the right time.
We foresee that in the longer run, as we recognise the importance and possibilities of
the sheer volume of data and information, it is anticipated that new storage, processing
and analysis technologies will be developed and evolved to take full advantage of this
pool of data and manage and safeguard this new asset of humankind.
We anticipate that these technology trends will continue to drive change and
development in many aspects of how everyone lives and works. For each of the
technology trends, we set out a brief description of the technology trend in order to
provide an overview of how these technologies have developed and evolved, followed
by its implications for the community, business or the government. We conclude this
chapter with a scenario illustrating how the technology trends may combine and
converge.
4.2 Technology trends
4.2.1. Mobile
Mobile computing is equipped with the same basic capabilities as traditional computing
but with portability and enhanced functionalities. Smartphones and media tablets are
6
Reference: Gartner,” Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for Smart Government” 2013.
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two common examples of mobile computing but the types of mobile devices continue
to evolve. For instance, Google has recently launched mobile computing in the form of
wearable technology through Google Glass. The enhanced functionality of mobile
computing using location-based services, social networking and multimedia has
brought numerous ways of innovation to everyday life.
For the first time in history, global shipments of smartphones 7 surpassed personal
computer (PC) shipments 8 in 4Q 2010. In addition, global shipment of tablets is also
forecasted to surpass PC in 2013. 9 As shown in the below graph, shipments of
smartphones and media tablet is predicted to reach 1.86 billion units by 2017,
compared with 0.85 billion units in 2012. 10
Figure 12 Worldwide PC and smart device shipments (2012 -2017)
Unit millions
2,500
2,000
Smartphones
1,500
PCs
Media tablet
1,000
500
0
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Reference: IDC, “Worldwide Smart Connected Devices Market Forecast Unit Shipments (Millions), 4Q 2012”
Given the explosive growth in mobile devices, and people’s growing expectation to be
able to do anything anywhere, governments and businesses will need to rethink how
they re-architect systems to deliver value to citizens and customers via mobile
computing.
7
Reference: IDC, “Android Rises, Symbian^3 and Windows Phone 7 Launch as Worldwide Smartphone Shipments
Increase 87.2% Year Over Year”. 7 February 2011.
8
Reference: IDC, “PC Market Records Modest Gains During Fourth Quarter of 2010”. 12 January 2011.
9
Reference: IDC, “Worldwide Smart Connected Device Market Crossed 1 Billion Shipments in 2012, Apple Pulls Near
Samsung in Fourth Quarter”. 26 March 2013.
10
Reference: IDC, “Worldwide Smart Connected Devices Market Forecast Unit Shipments (Millions), 4Q 2012”
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New generation of anytime, anyplace applications
The proliferation of mobile usage
International experience and benefits
already has, and will continue to have, a
significant impact for individuals,
Square, Inc. is a US mobile payments
businesses and governments.
company that transformed mobile devices
Applications built for mobile devices
into an innovative point-of-sale (POS)
generally fall into two categories: vertical
payment system. The product and the
- where the focus is on a particular
business model were built with mobile first
industry; and horizontal - where the
and allow individuals and merchants to
application is an enhancement on
accept card payments using their mobile
existing services. For example, in
devices. A small plastic attachment plugs
education, by introducing mobile
into the audio jack of a supported
computing into the learning process, a
smartphone or tablet and reads the card's
mobile device can be turned into a
magnetic stripe. The company charges
11
Personal Learning Environment (PLE)
service fees for every card transaction with
by adding very inexpensive, and often
no monthly or setup costs.
free, applications. Traditional learning
activities such as goal setting, research,
collaboration, and content creation can now be conducted anytime, anyplace.
In business, new business models are being designed for mobile first. From business
applications for the construction industry (PlanGrid), sales and marketing service
(ServiceMax) to payment methods (MasterCard PayPass), businesses are rapidly
expanding the range of services available on mobile devices.
Governments in many places are already using mobile as an alternative or preferred
channel for their online e-services, from informational and education services like
weather and tourism, to transactional services like filing taxes and receiving social
benefits. As more and more government e-services move to the mobile channel,
citizens will be able to access government services anytime and anywhere.
4.2.2. Cloud computing
Cloud computing consists of a pool of computing, storage and networking resources
that can be allocated and “moved around” by special software. Cloud computing
provides a scalable computing environment for businesses without the need for them
to own or manage the computing assets.
The dynamic nature of this allocation allows users to request for and utilise computing
resources as a service whenever it is needed. Users could request for the base
hardware and operating system (called infrastructure as a service or IaaS), an
infrastructure ready for application development (called platform as a service or PaaS)
or an infrastructure that already comes with a specific business use, like customer
relationship management (called software as a service or SaaS).
11
Reference: Mark van Harmelen, “Personal Learning Environment”’, IEEE Computer Society. 2006.
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Depending on security, corporate or regulatory requirements, cloud computing can be
delivered inside a company’s data centre, externally by a third party company or a
combination of both.
The latest idea for this technology, which is named cooperation as a service (CaaS), is
to combine different cloud computing environments together and allow computers to
share all the infrastructure, platform and software services with all other participants,
similar to how Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking works. This is still at an early phase and
further research is needed.
The global market for cloud services is expected to continue to grow in the foreseeable
future, with one estimate showing a five-year compound annual growth rate of 16.8%,
reaching over USD 200 billion by approximately 2017. 12 Another forecast, as shown in
the figure below, predicts that the global cloud computer market will grow to USD
241billion by 2020.
Figure 13 Global cloud computing market is forecast to grow 22% per year through 2020
Reference: Forrester Research, “Sizing the cloud”
Acceleration of a booming ICT industry
For businesses, cloud platforms can greatly accelerate a booming ICT industry or
startups and can speed up the time to market for new innovative business ventures.
According to a recent study by Rackspace Hosting with support from Manchester
Business School, 90% of the businesses surveyed which had started in the last three
years said that cloud computing has made it easier to set up their businesses. 13 Cloud
platforms can enable entrepreneurs and innovators to start new ventures with minimal
capital requirements and quickly acquire the technical services desired by purchasing
the functionalities of the cloud and implementing their business applications on top.
12
Reference: Gartner, “Forecast Overview: Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2011-2017, 1Q13 Update”.
13
Reference: Rackspace, “Economic Impact of Cloud Blog”
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Cloud platforms are also transforming
government internal operations. The
technology provides governments with
the ability to fine-tune their services for
better operational efficiency. The
technology also provides governments
with the agility to quickly develop new
services at a faster rate and at a lower
cost. In addition, the standardisation
components within cloud computing can
reduce the number of approvals needed
to acquire the computing resources, thus
saving time and money.
International experience and benefits
Cycle Computing, a company that offers
on-demand high-bandwidth supercomputer
capabilities to scientific and technical firms,
is a business built on the cloud. The
company makes supercomputing power
available to everyone and helps other
startups and small businesses to take
advantage of that power at significantly
lower cost, which traditionally only Fortune
100 companies could consider. As a result,
a number of small businesses have been
spawned to tap into the new capabilities
offered.
4.2.3. Internet of Things
Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the pervasive presence of connected devices that
enable machine-to-machine communication, e.g. everyday objects embedded with
Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, sensors, and actuators, that have sensing,
data capture, and communication capabilities. These everyday objects can be coffee
machines, shampoo bottles, cars, steering wheels, servers, or any physical items that
come to mind. These everyday objects connect with each other through a network to
form a global network of intelligent computer systems and devices. The connected
devices are able to interact with each other to monitor changes in, for example, the
physical environment, an individual object or person’s movement or behaviour and
ultimately relay this information back for analysis.
In the future, many everyday objects will be connected to the Internet. As the chart
below illustrates, the number of such connected devices around us is growing
exponentially. It is predicted that there will be 25 billion devices connected to the
Internet by 2015 and 50 billion by 2020. 14 This vast network of connected objects will
mean that tasks and information exchanges can be automated which would
dramatically change our everyday life.
14
Reference: Cisco, “The Internet of Things How the Next Evolution of the Internet Is Changing Everything”. April 2011.
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Figure 14 Number of connected devices per person
60
6.58
7
No. of connected devices per person
50
6
5
40
4
3.47
30
3
20
1.84
2
10
No. of connected devices per person
Total no. of connected devices in the world (billion)
Total no. of connected devices in the w orld
1
0.08
0
0
2003
2010
2015
2020
Reference: Cisco, “The Internet of Things – How the Next Evolution of the Internet Is Changing Everything”.
Real-time monitoring and responses
The growth in connected devices means that changes in the physical environment can
be monitored in real time and the immediate analysis of this real-time information can
enable decision makers to make faster and better decisions. This capability can be
applied in retail, healthcare, manufacturing and logistics, public services and many
other industries.
In retail, connected devices can be
installed to note shoppers’ profile data
(commonly stored in their membership
cards) to gather any relevant information
to help close purchases at the point of
sale. For example, further discounts or
promotions can be offered to shoppers
who are identified as price conscious
based on the information collected from
the sensors. Retailers can also gather
and process data from thousands of
shoppers as they journey through their
stores. Connected devices note how
long the shoppers linger at individual
displays and record what they ultimately
buy. Simulations based on such
information will help to increase
revenues by optimising retail layouts.
International experience and benefits
A remote pacemaker monitoring solution
makes use of implantable devices to
provide better patient care. Cardiac
patients with a pacemaker are typically
followed up every 3–12 months. The
remote pace-maker monitoring solution
can transmit the related data automatically
on a daily basis, and an analytical tool
could then alert the physicians if vital signs
move outside predefined limits. This
enables a higher level of patient care, early
diagnosis of problems and peace of mind
for the individual. It also improves
administrative efficiency and maintenance.
In healthcare, connected devices can be used to track the behaviours and symptoms
(e.g. body temperature, blood pressure, heart rhythm and other parameters) of at-risk
patients to improve the safety and quality of patient care. With real-time information on
the patients, physicians can better diagnose disease and prescribe tailored treatments.
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In terms of the operational performance of a hospital/healthcare facility, sensors can be
installed on expensive surgery equipments to monitor their actual usage so as to
maximise equipment utilisation and reduce waiting time.
In manufacturing and logistics, information collected through connected devices can
help boost operation efficiency. Sensors can be installed on manufacturing parts for
automated tracking which may help reduce lost and theft. Logistics for airlines and
trucking lines can be streamlined through the use of connected devices to get up-tothe-second knowledge of weather conditions, traffic patterns, and vehicle locations –
connected devices increase the ability to make constant routing adjustments that
reduce congestion costs and increase a network’s effective capacity.
IoT applications in the IT Services and Networking sector have emerged. For instance,
solutions and practices to manage networking equipment and servers installed in
different data centres under a cloud infrastructure; managing mobile devices like “Find
Your iPhone” by Apple; and off-the-shelf Mobile Device Management tool to protect
against data leakage when a mobile device is lost, etc.
In the public services domain, the application of connected devices spans a wide
variety of areas including environmental protection and transport. Connected devices
can provide situational awareness that can help citizens and government agencies act
and react at the operational level to make informed decisions, and support sensordriven analytics that help with planning decisions. Services as simple as public parking,
for example, will benefit from the use of connected devices. Traffic and road use
information can be provided by sensors installed in some of the parking meters. The
consolidated data can provide insights for traffic network design, and assist road users
with supplementary information that allows a better driving experience.
4.2.4. Next generation workplace
Through the digitisation of information
and the critical mass reached by mobility
and collaborative technologies, today’s
workplace can be a virtual environment
on top of a physical one, where workers
can accomplish work at and out office
through a multitude of devices. Workers
expect information needed to complete
the work to be readily accessible, and
can cooperate with others regardless of
geographic boundaries using
collaboration technologies.
International experiences and benefits
The Canadian governments’ Public Works
and Government Services Canada
(PWGSC) introduced Workplace 2.0 to
modernise how civil servants work.
Workplace 2.0 addresses 3 elements: the
physical workspace, the supporting
policies (e.g. telework), processes and
systems (e.g. Shared Services Canada)
that assist public servants in their work,
and the new technologies that allow them
to communicate (e.g. high-definition video
conference systems) and collaborate
across government and with Canadians.
Global changes of workplace
environment are currently taking place.
More connected working environment
can facilitate clusters of workers to work,
chat, share, meet, and even make decision through text, voice, video at geographically
dispersed offices / locations anytime. This provides more flexibility to the working
population, and offers opportunities to improve business efficiency.
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Looking forward, the ability to work anytime, anywhere, on any trusted device, in any
language will intensify where workers will be evaluated based on performance, not
merely presence, in the results-oriented work environment. Social networking services
with mobile technologies will replace e-mail as the primary form of business
communication in the very near future 15 and workers will collaborate based on the
‘swarming’ work style where teams are formed quickly to tackle a problem or an
opportunity and then dissipate. 16 Knowledge is collective through mass collaboration
and can be easily shared and accessed.
The Government has already embarked on the digitisation of its records through the
electronic information management (EIM) initiative. The records, eventually in digital
form, laid the foundation for access by Government officers off site. The ability to
further enhance collaboration and contribute to and share the collective knowledge
from anywhere will help meet workers’ expectation of the future workplace.
4.2.5. Big data and analytics
Big data is, in simple terms, an unprecedented massive collection of complex and large
data sets that are continually being accumulated and growing ever larger. On a daily
basis, the world creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. It is estimated that 90% of the data
in the world today has been created in the last two years alone 17. This data comes
from everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media
sites, digital pictures and videos, purchase transaction records, and mobile device GPS
signals to name a few. And the types of data are more diverse and varied. In sum, big
data offers challenges and opportunities in three dimensions, namely volume, speed
and variety.
To cope with the challenges posed by the volume, speed and variety of big data,
radically new thinking is required to figure out how best to store and retrieve such data
and information. Firstly, as data is generated almost everywhere, some are residing in
structured data sources (e.g. transaction record systems in banks) and others are
content generated by customers and citizens and residing in unstructured data sources
(e.g. pictures and free text comments on social media sites). Data is often stored in
many different systems and silos. Given this situation, businesses and governments
need to rethink how they could retrieve and access such diverse data sets in order to
take advantage of big data to support their day-to-day operations as well as important
decision-making processes. For example, an open-source software framework called
Hadoop has been developed to handle such a demand in accessing such large volume,
diverse and distributed data sets.
Secondly, businesses and governments need to ensure data storage is optimised and
develop a mechanism to determine what data should be moved to the data warehouse,
and what data should be offloaded e.g. infrequently accessed or aged data.
15
Gartner, “Worldwide Wireless E-Mail Users to Reach 1 Billion by Year-End 2014”, June 30 2010
16
Gartner, “World of Work Will Witness 10 Changes During the Next 10 Years”, August 4, 2010
17
Reference: IBM Research
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The explosion of data however also means there is a greater need for data collectors
to provide full disclosure on when data is being collected and if so, how the data is
being used. Transparency is the best way to achieve trust and confidence in decisions
being made using big data.
With its sheer volume, diversity and speed of accumulation across different aspects of
life, big data provides new possibilities in generating insight about customers and
citizens, in terms of their needs, preferences, and behavioural patterns. Businesses
and governments can significantly improve how they serve their customers and citizens
by providing more targeted products and services. In turn, the society as a whole can
further reduce wastage and increase overall efficiency and effectiveness.
Figure 15 Big Data volume is expanding at an unprecedented rate
By 2015 the number of networked devices will
be double the entire global population. l
9000
The total number of social media
accounts exceeds the entire global
population.
7000
6000
5000
Data quality solutions exist for
enterprise data like customer,
product, and address data, but
this is only a fraction of the
total enterprise data.
4000
3000
2000
1000
Se
(In
te
rn nso
et
rs
of
Th
ing
s)
Global Data Volume in exabytes
8000
dia xt)
Me d te
ial io an
c
So , aud
eo
P
VoI
(vid
Enterprise Data
0
2005
2010
2015
Reference: IBM analysis
A new set of analytical tools are needed to take advantage of big data, namely
advanced analytics. Advanced analytics usually refers to the set of ICT tools that are
built on various proven mathematical and statistical modelling techniques (e.g.
correlation, stochastics) for developing data patterns. With big data, advanced
analytics can process and analyze structured (e.g. relational data) and unstructured
data (e.g. free texts, image, video) using these modelling techniques in order to
uncover patterns of customers and citizens’ product and service consumption,
preferences, timing, as well as their deeper emotive reactions. With proper analyses
and interpretations, these patterns can then be turned into useful insights about
customers and citizens.
This in turn provides new capabilities for businesses and governments to not only track
the historical records, but more importantly, to predict and anticipate changing needs
and wants of customers and citizens ahead of time, and enable decision makers to
make more informed and timely decisions.
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Derive meaningful insights in all aspects of life
In healthcare, advanced analytics and big data can revolutionise healthcare by
transforming biomedical informatics. Big data analytics can mine information that
predicts disease across a population or can be used to identify the causes of complex
community diseases, trace the spread and evolution of infectious pathogens, analyse
the most potent and efficacious cures to target patient groups, or allocate resources for
primary and specialty care in the most effective manner.
In transportation, advanced analytics and big data can predict traffic conditions,
manage vehicle flows, optimise fuel consumption, and avoid accidents. This can
enable an intelligent traffic system
which can then be hooked up with
International experience and benefits
smarter cars. Data on flights will be
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is a teaching
coupled with road and railway traffic
affiliate of Harvard Medical School. It sought
data to allow optimised traffic
management in terminals and airports. a solution that could bring the latest drug
interaction data right to patients’ bedsides. It
In education, educators can use
implemented a solution that could use its
advanced analytics and big data to
massive data volumes and conduct multiple
determine the best way to teach, and
drug studies simultaneously. This allowed
predict education outcomes based on
researchers to design, test and apply brand
study records and student behavioural
new algorithms to quickly identify drug risk
analysis. This will enable personalised
warning signs.
syllabus and teaching content to
deliver customised education.
Apart from the above domains that are highly relevant to Hong Kong’s public services,
other areas in the public and private sectors, such as finance, logistic and utilities can
also gain substantial benefits by deploying big data and analytics technologies. The
ability to provide valuable, citizen-centric services, in which users will in turn, award the
provider with even more insight, will strengthen the competitiveness of the business,
industry and city.
4.2.6. Social Media
Social media is an environment that allows people to create, share and consume
information, ideas and content through the Internet. Immediacy (of both distribution and
feedback), quality and reach are some of the main differences between social media
and the traditional ways of sharing content.
The growth of social networks has risen alongside Internet usage in the past number of
years. Figure 14 shows the growth of the social networking population among
individuals, whilst Figure 15 highlights the fact that organisations from both private and
public sectors are also making a presence on social networking platforms to uncover
opportunities in creating additional value during the interactions with customers or
citizens.
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Total Unique Visitors (Million)
Figure 16 Rise of the global social networking audience
1,600
1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
Total internet
Social networking
200
0
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Reference: ComScore Media Metrix, Worldwide, March 2007 – October 2011. “It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-toknows about Social Networking and where it’s headed”. 7 December 2012.
Figure 17 Percentage of Fortune Global 100 companies with a presence on major social media platforms
100%
82%
77%
79%
74%
65%
61%
57%
54%
50%
Twitter
Facebook
2010
2011
2012
YouTube
Reference: Burson-Marsteller. “Global Social Media Checkup 2012” released August 15, 2012
International experience and benefits
Enriched citizen engagement and
crowdsourcing to tackle complex
social challenges
An effective application of social media
for organisations, governments and
citizens can enhance the experience of
the interaction between the different
parties and provide greater insights into
the customers’ or citizens’ individual
needs. Organisations and governments
can listen to, and engage with,
customers or citizens at a deeper level
and address the potential issues with
immediacy
US researchers have been trying for
decades to model the molecular structure
of a complex protein found in Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). They
invented a protein-folding game called
Foldit to recruit the help of “citizen
scientists” to produce accurate models of
the protein. More than 236,000 players
registered and 57,000 players participated.
Within three weeks, participants in the
game had solved a puzzle that had vexed
scientists for years. Solutions provided
important insights into the development of
new retroviral drugs.
Another key application of social media
is skills augmentation and workload distribution. By deconstructing a complex problem
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into smaller or simpler tasks, social media enables a large group of people, or ‘crowd’,
to tackle the problem by resolving the simple tasks individually. For example, in 2011
researchers invented a protein-folding game to draw on the collaborative effort of
57,000 “citizen scientists” to solve a puzzle that had vexed scientists for years (details
can be found in the international experience highlighted below). This form of
collaboration, or crowdsourcing, benefits both citizens and organisations in tackling
complex technical and societal challenges.
4.3
A fundamental rethink
of the way people live
and work
Through social media, mobile computing
and IoT, the world is generating data on
an unprecedented scale. With the
emergence of big data analytics and
cognitive and cloud computing,
businesses and governments are able to
take advantage of the velocity and
variety of both structured and
unstructured data captured in the
significantly complex data sets, and
generate new insights to dynamically
understand citizens’ needs and spot new
paths to value. Value is no longer
measured by the basic service that the
Government provides today but by the
convenience and the individualisation
that accompany the delivery of the
service.
International experience and benefits
Computer scientists and biologists from
Columbia University, Cornell University
and IBM have been working on a cognitive
computing project called Systems of
Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable
Electronics (SyNAPSE). It attempts to
reproduce the structure and architecture of
the brain on cognitive computers. It
analyses the way our brains receive
sensory input, connect to each other,
adapt these connections, and transmit
motor output. The SyNAPSE project has
been successful in building a
computational system that emulates the
brain's computing efficiency, size and
power usage. This opens up exciting new
opportunities to transform our
understanding in neuroscience, and
potentially creates opportunities to improve
neurology healthcare.
As such, these digital forces are
changing how citizens live, how businesses work and how governments serve. This
fundamental shift requires business enterprises and government agencies to
fundamentally rethink the end-to-end experience for their customers and citizens in
addressing the new expectations:
•
Instant access to information, products and services
•
Engagement as individuals, on their own terms – anytime and anywhere
•
Transparency from businesses and government agencies they interact with
•
Trusted, mutually beneficial relationships that go beyond one-time transactions
•
Seamless experiences that match product and service quality
•
Multimedia and multi-tasking enable daily work life of citizens.
Thus the key question is: how ready are businesses and governments to cope with this
fundamental transformation?
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How “new digital” could weave into the fabric of everyday life
Let’s imagine a scenario with Kelly, who is a 28-year-old financial services professional
working in Hong Kong. During one evening, Kelly receives a new mobile device
promotion from her mobile service provider based on her current data and voice usage
stored on the customer information system. She clicks on the link and enters into the
service provider’s portal.
Kelly reviews the information available and decides to consult other opinions through
her group of friends on Facebook about the new phone. She shares a link on her
Facebook page from the provider’s web store.
As she passes by the provider’s retail shop, Kelly receives a promotional SMS,
because her location service is switched on. This promotional offer is valid for today
upon her purchase of a new device. She immediately accesses Facebook on her
mobile to see feedback from her group of friends. She receives positive messages and
decides to take up the promotional offer.
As soon as Kelly enters the retail shop, with a short wait time, the store associate
(holding a mobile device with all of Kelly’s purchase history and preferences readily
pulled up from the internal customer management relationship) greets her as Kelly is
one of the most loyal customers. She immediately introduces Kelly to the new device
on the promotion coupled with additional personalised offers.
In the meantime, Kelly’s friends, who are also on the same network, are offered new
promotion offers. As Kelly returns home, she is offered loyalty points for rating her
experience on Facebook and her referrals.
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5.
SWOT analysis of ICT development
5.1 SWOT context
In this chapter, we present the internal, external, positive and negative factors that will
affect how Hong Kong achieves its ICT vision as outlined in this Strategy. The
assessment is based on a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)
analysis. It helps identify the important strategic themes for further consideration and
ultimately to determine the potential strategic initiatives described later in this report.
Strengths represent those positive factors, internal to Hong Kong, which can be
leveraged within the new strategy, while weaknesses represent those disadvantageous
factors which need to be addressed and or taken into account. Opportunities are
generally emerging and external in nature and provide factors which should be
exploited by the overall strategy, while threats are also external and emerging, and
understanding them can help to focus attention on possible mitigation actions.
We have deliberately taken a forward looking perspective in the SWOT analysis, taking
into account the technology trends and impacts described in the previous chapter.
Thus in some areas where Hong Kong has made progress during the years covered by
the various editions of the Digital 21 Strategy (as indicated earlier) there may be more
to do in the years ahead to exploit the new opportunities and address new threats
posted by the continued impact of rapid changes in technology.
The various information sources used in this analysis include international
benchmarking studies (e.g. World Economic Forum), IBM research papers and
international experience, Hong Kong surveys and statistics and feedback from this
study’s consultation sessions with key stakeholder groups. In some cases the findings
and facts underlying the SWOT have already been described as part of our review of
progress under the 2008 Strategy and in this case we refer to findings briefly here for
completeness.
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5.2 SWOT analysis
Strengths





First class ICT infrastructure
Robust & reliable legal, business and
economic environment
Receptive market for innovative
products
Strong regional business hub
Strong reputation for commercialising
new developments in business and
technology
Weaknesses




Opportunities




Growing opportunities in Mainland
China as its economy shifts from
exports to domestic consumption, the
services sector expands, and China’s
own exploitation of ICT grows rapidly
Huge possibilities presented by the
next generation of technology trends
(e.g. Cloud, Mobile, Big Data, Social
Media, Internet of Things)
International experience illustrates the
benefits of leveraging PSI datasets
more widely
Innovation in healthcare and elderly
services incentivised by the ageing
population
A relatively small domestic market
Many competing thriving sectors (e.g.
financial)
Shrinking manufacturing & industrial
sector
Shortage of land
Threats



Competition from other Asian and
global economies – which are also
seeking to establish digital leadership
Uncertainties in the global economic
outlook
Risk of digital divide for those without
ICT access
Strengths
First class ICT infrastructure – Hong Kong continues to have in place an excellent
and affordable ICT infrastructure supporting the delivery of services and the
development of the local ICT industry. The ICT infrastructure coverage provides
Internet access to a vast majority of the population at an affordable price 18 to help
deliver the various benefits of ICT. As indicated earlier in this report, the penetration
rate of household broadband is around 90% and the mobile penetration rate is about
228.4% (as of March 2013). The average peak Internet connection speed of 57.5 Mbps
and average Internet connection speed of 9.3 Mbps are also among the fastest in the
world.
18
Reference: International Telecommunication Union (ITU), “Measuring the Information Society 2011”.
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Robust & reliable legal, business and economic environment – Long-term
economic stability gives Hong Kong a relative business advantage in encouraging
long-term international and local investments compared to some other economies in
Asia. 19 Hong Kong’s Government institutions and legal framework are respected
internationally. The rule of law and free flow of information are valuable assets in
helping to attract international companies to set up regional headquarters here.
The pro-competition regulatory framework encourages competition and innovation in
Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s pro-competition business environment and minimal foreign
ownership restrictions help companies to compete and innovate and to provide the
best services to consumers at competitive prices. Hong Kong is ranked highly in a
number of international economic freedom rankings. In particular, Hong Kong has been
ranked the first in the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom since 1995.
Hong Kong’s legal system has built a good reputation internationally for intellectual
property (IP) protection. IP protection in Hong Kong has a long history and is viewed as
one of the leading nations or cities. 20 Also, many international law firms have offices in
Hong Kong and can supply a strong pool of IP rights experts.
Receptive markets for innovative products – The Hong Kong consumers are
enthusiastic about experimenting with the latest consumer technologies, from
smartphones to social media. 21 Over 10 million 3G/4G mobile subscribers in Hong
Kong were recorded, i.e. over 62% of all mobile subscribers (as of March 2013). 22
Hong Kong is often amongst the first batch of cities for consumer technology
companies to launch their innovative products, and many local consumers are early
adopters of new products and concepts in technology.
Regional business hub for sophisticated use of ICT – Hong Kong is a regional
hub 23 and the ICT industry has built up excellent domain knowledge as a result of
developing solutions for sophisticated users in business sectors such as financial
services, logistics, healthcare, etc. According to the Census & Statistics Department,
1,367 companies were operating regional headquarters in Hong Kong in 2012.
Strong reputation for commercialising new developments in business and
technology – Hong Kong’s economy and business community are successful in taking
new ideas and developments and finding effective ways to commercialise them. As
value creation usually takes place at the intersection of business and technology, this
strength is of great relevance to the exploitation of ICT to support Hong Kong’s
success 24.
19
Reference: Census and Statistics Department and InvestHK, “Annual Survey of Companies in Hong Kong
Representing Parent Companies Located outside Hong Kong” 2012”.
20
Reference: China Intellectual Property, "Hong Kong IP development: fast in speed and subtle in quality".
21
Reference: World Economic Forum, “Global Information Technology Report 2013”, Hong Kong is ranked as 12th in the
use of virtual social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn).
22
Reference: Figures provided by Office of the Communications Authority
23
Reference: Census and Statistics Department “Report on 2012 Annual Survey of Companies in Hong Kong
Representing Parent Companies Located outside Hong Kong”
24
Hong Kong was ranked among the world's top 4 tech capitals to watch (after Silicon Valley and New York) by Forbes.
Reference: http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2013/03/20/the-worlds-top-4-tech-capitals-to-watch-after-siliconvalley-and-new-york/2/
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Weaknesses
A relatively small domestic market – Given the small market size, ICT start-ups in
Hong Kong may find it difficult to scale and to compete in the global market during their
early development phase. This can limit the development pace of the local ICT startups, and may encourage overseas businesses to choose locations with larger
domestic markets.
Many competing thriving sectors (e.g. financial) – There are many careers and
employers competing for the most able students emerging from university and the ICT
industry is sometimes not perceived as a preferred career among some students who
may be more attracted by, for example, the financial services industry or a career in
business management. The opportunity for a long-term career within ICT is perceived
by some to be jeopardised by the recent trends of out-sourcing and off-shoring. The
increasing role of ICT in economic development and ICT career prospects are not
effectively communicated to the students. 25 To some extent this perception seems to
rest on an overly narrow view of what a successful ICT career involves. As mentioned
below, some of the most valuable skills in the future will be the ability to combine
business and technology insights – to understand how technology can address current
challenges and create new possibilities – rather than simply technical ICT skills.
Shrinking manufacturing and industrial sector – The manufacturing and industrial
sector in Hong Kong has undergone limited or negative growth since the 1990s due to
the cost competition with low-cost cities or regions. Recent data showed that
manufacturing accounted for 1.8% of the GDP while employment in manufacturing took
up 3.4% of the total employment 26, which are relatively insignificant compared to other
major industries. A strong high tech manufacturing and industrial base is conducive to
ICT hardware and software development. Hong Kong has a service sector of 93% and
thus do not have the manufacturing and industrial bases to support the ICT industries
like our neighbouring cities. On the other hand it is important to note that ICT plays a
vital role in many service industries and therefore this is an area where the Hong Kong
ICT industry does have a great opportunity.
Shortage of land – The relative shortage of land and office space puts pressure on
the ICT industry, especially start-ups which would require an upfront investment on
office space. The ICT start-ups are an important driver to bring innovation to this fastpaced industry, and thus ICT ecosystem is affected by high office rental. Also, data
centres require a lot of space in hosting the hardware and infrastructure. Office rental is
a key cost driver to the data centres and thus high office rental affects Hong Kong’s
competitiveness as a data centre hub.
Opportunities
Growing opportunities in Mainland China – As its economy shifts from exports to
domestic consumption, the services sector expands, and China’s own exploitation of
25
Reference: IT Manpower Workshop report completed 2013 January and IBM consultation workshops with ICT
industry and education institution representatives.
26
Reference: Trade and Industry Department,, “Fact Sheets – Trade and Industry 2012”.
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ICT grows rapidly. It is estimated that over the next five years, the Chinese market will
roughly double in size. 27 By 2022, China’s retail market is estimated to grow to twice
the size of the US. Being part of China and such a large fast growing economy
provides huge opportunities to Hong Kong in many aspects. 28 The nature of that
opportunity is shifting as the Mainland economy focuses more on domestic
consumption and there is more focus on providing services alongside the
manufacturing of products. The nature of retailing is changing fundamentally as online
shopping allows Chinese consumers access to both leading global and local brands.
These developments are already having major impacts and many successful
enterprises, such as Alibaba, are emerging. 29 The ICT opportunity in Mainland China
is therefore growing rapidly, e.g. Internet of Things 30 – and with it the opportunities for
the Hong Kong ICT industry. Hong Kong can also sometimes be an attractive market
for ICT and other enterprises to try out new business models, products and services as
a preliminary step to entering the China market – all the more so given the high volume
of retail sales in Hong Kong to China visitors.
Huge possibilities presented by the next generation of technology trends (e.g.
Cloud, Mobile, Big Data, Social Media, and Internet of Things) - As economies around
the world continue their efforts to understand and exploit current technologies, the next
wave of developments is already underway – and the possibilities continue to expand.
Cloud computing means many things to many people – on demand computing capacity
(storage and computing power), software as a service and applications as a service.
Cloud also has the potential to transform data centre services with cloud computing –
an area where Hong Kong’s ICT sector has had significant success with Government’s
support and facilitation. Mobile and social media have taken ICT out of the home and
office and allowed people to live and work in different ways and to develop many new
applications. The Internet of Things means that it is now possible to build a new level of
intelligence into the physical world and infrastructure around us. This has the potential
to provide new insights and ways to address shared community challenges that Hong
Kong is faced with such as the environment, traffic congestion, food safety and security,
building safety and healthcare. Given Hong Kong’s track record for developing ways to
exploit new technologies, this should represent a significant opportunity for the city and
for its ICT industry.
International experience illustrates the benefits of leveraging PSI datasets more
widely – Managing and delivering public services involves governments in collecting
and using vast amounts of data about the cities they govern. There is a lot of potential
value to the community in aggregating and exploiting this data but the government
agencies that collect it may not be in the best position to assess what data would be
helpful or develop the innovative applications that can take advantage of it. Experience
from other governments shows that the private and non-government sectors can be
very innovative in finding uses and applications to such data provided it can be made
available to them freely in the right format. Of course data that could identify an
27
Reference: Economist Intelligent Unit, “China’s retail market: Double dragon”.
28
Reference: Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre, “Guangdong’s Economic Transformation in the ‘12th Five-Year
Plan’ and Hong Kong’s Opportunities”.
29
Reference: The Economist, “Alibaba – The world’s greatest bazaar”.
30
Reference: CNN, “China looks to lead the Internet of Things”.
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individual is not needed or appropriate for such use. But much public data does not
relate to people but to the physical environment, and data on people can often be
aggregated to avoid potential privacy concerns and then released for innovative re-use.
Governments generally pursue this type of PSI opportunity by releasing data through a
portal or platform. The Hong Kong Government has set up such an open data platform
(Data.One), and some selected PSI is now available for download and re-use. This
offers opportunities to further expand the release and re-use of PSI for more socialeconomic benefits.
Innovation in healthcare and elderly services incentivised by the ageing
population – Hong Kong has a world-class healthcare system, and has been providing
a wide range of public services to the elderly population. These services will potentially
be enhanced and transformed through innovative ICT solutions. For example,
computer scientists around the world have been working with medical experts to study
ageing-related diseases using advanced computational tools, and trying to develop
innovative therapeutic approaches 31. Substantial business opportunities and values will
be captured from those innovative developments. As Hong Kong’s population keeps
ageing 32, there will be increasing demand and incentives to innovative and enhance
our healthcare and related elderly services. With further development in the ICT and
other innovation-driven industries, Hong Kong may become an ideal testing ground
and innovation hub for elderly service related solutions.
Threats
Competition from other Asian and global economies – Other cities and economies
are of course very aware of the opportunities provided by ICT and technology trends
and are seeking to establish their own digital leadership. Hong Kong’s neighbouring
economies have formulated strategies to leverage ICT to enhance competitive
advantage in the new digital age. Countries like Australia, Singapore and Korea have
formulated national ICT development strategies for 2015 and 2020. Of course ICT
exploitation is not a zero sum game and Hong Kong is not necessarily disadvantaged if
another city does well. The focus for Hong Kong is on fully seizing the opportunities
offered by technology. Indeed in some ways being part of a vibrant region with many
competing economies and cities can be a spur to Hong Kong’s continued development.
But in some areas - such as the ICT industry and attracting international companies to
locate their headquarters in Hong Kong – there is competition with neighbouring cities
and economies and Hong Kong will need to ensure that is it at least keeping up with or
ideally in a leadership position compared to other centres. Effective exploitation of ICT
and technology, and the presence of a vital ICT services sector are vital elements in
this.
Uncertainties in the global economic outlook – Economies around the work felt
different levels of impact from the Global Financial Crisis and are recovering at different
speeds. Many of the mature markets have been hit harder and are recovering more
31
Reference: Ageing Research Review, “Next-generation sequencing in aging research: emerging applications,
problems, pitfalls and possible solutions” 2010.
32
Reference: “Hong Kong Population Projections 2007-2036” released by the HKSAR Government,
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200707/16/P200707160137.htm
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slowly and this has an impact on the global ICT market and its growth. Major ICT
markets in the world have felt the impact of global economic uncertainty 33 and market
demand for local ICT companies is potentially under pressure as global economic
growth slows. On the other hand Hong Kong, being part of China, has benefited with a
higher growth rate than most leading economies 34, and many global companies are
refocusing investments even more strongly on growth markets in general and China in
particular in order to try to capture the growth here.
Risk of digital divide for those without ICT access – There is a potential risk that
the underprivileged groups will be further disadvantaged by having limited access to
ICT and the life benefits it brings. For example people with some types of disability may
find it hard to access technology unless proper provision is made in products and
services to allow them to do so. Families with low incomes may find it hard, without
help, to gain access to ICT and the opportunities it brings and this can re-enforce the
problem of low income - and indeed pass it to the next generation. Today’s elderly
people, who grew up at a time when many of today’s technologies were not available,
tend to be less familiar with ICT and possess fewer skills, making it hard to digitally
engage the current and future elderly population which will make up an increasing
percentage of the population. 35According to international experience 36 it is often the
case that those citizens who are digitally excluded are also more likely to be financially
and socially disadvantaged. Unless the digital divide is bridged, the benefits of
achieving Hong Kong’s ICT vision will not be shared among all groups within the
community.
5.3 SWOT analysis conclusion
Over the years, Hong Kong has established itself as a world-class digital city with an
advanced ICT infrastructure and a strong political and legal environment that benefit
both businesses and citizens. Although Hong Kong is faced with a relatively small
domestic market and fierce competition from other Asian and global economies, the
strong relationship that Hong Kong has with both the Mainland and the rest of the world,
in addition to its favourable economic environment to act as a strong regional business
hub, also gives it a strategic advantage that few other cities possess.
For a city to sustain prosperity however, Hong Kong needs to continue to reinvent itself
by building on its strengths while exploiting the opportunities presented. Technology,
having evolved greatly over the years, can be the enabler for Hong Kong to maintain its
leadership.
While technology used to be for back office operations, the advancement in technology
has allowed it to move out of ICT departments and become interwoven into
33
Reference: International Monetary Fund, “April 2013 World Economic Outlook (WEO)”.
34
Reference: IDC, “China ICT Spending 2012 – 2016 Forecast and Analysis”.
35
Reference: HKSAR Government, “Hong Kong Population Projections 2007-2036”,
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200707/16/P200707160137.htm
36
Reference: The Chartered Institute of Taxation (UK), “Digital Exclusion”. 2012.
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governments' citizen-centric e-services, businesses' innovative solutions and citizens'
daily lives.
It is therefore important to articulate where Hong Kong wishes to be and how
technology could be utilised to achieve this vision.
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6.
Vision – Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living
6.1 Articulating the vision
We envision Hong Kong to be a modern world smarter city where technology helps
improve quality of life by enabling:
•
Citizens and visitors to be more engaged with and understood by businesses and
government agencies through intelligent and interconnected touch points
•
Businesses to be more innovative in anticipating changing customer needs; and
growing and expanding beyond Hong Kong borders both physically and digitally
•
Hong Kong’s ICT industry to continue to be successful and reach new heights by
exploiting both the technology possibilities and the opportunities on the Mainland
•
the city to be more sustainable through smarter, interconnected infrastructure, from
transportation to utility provisioning, and services
•
the community to be more inclusive and prosperous through an open and
collaborative digital ecosystem to enrich quality of life
•
Hong Kong society to be more knowledge-based, with real-time access to
knowledge and information anytime, anywhere.
Technology can facilitate better communication and great collaboration between and
among Hong Kong’s citizens, businesses and government departments and should be
a means of support and assistance to persons with disabilities in our society.
From an external perspective, our vision is that Hong Kong would be globally
recognised as one of the leading world digital cities, with the same level of
acknowledgement as a global financial centre and trading hub. Its international image
should be vibrant, exciting, and innovative yet still always retain its special character
based on its unique heritage, culture and values. Furthermore, Hong Kong would be
seen as a role model or benchmark by other leading cities – both on the Mainland and
globally.
To realise the vision, a set of missions / goals are proposed as follows:
•
To leverage ICT to benefit the community, and empower every citizen with
enhanced everyday lives
•
To unleash the power of innovation in Hong Kong, and translate innovative ideas
into business success
•
To develop and foster a sustainable and vibrant ICT industry to fuel the future
economic growth of Hong Kong
•
To leverage the latest technology developments to transform Government and
public service operations that will fulfil future needs and expectations from citizens.
The strategic elements of the vision and missions / goals mentioned above will require
a series of coordinated programmes and initiatives to realise the results and benefits.
They will cover different levels of stakeholders and groups – the citizens and
individuals (including as education, digital literacy and identity, etc.), businesses and
industries (including as ICT startups, small and medium-sized businesses, crossborderer business, etc.), as well as the Government and the city as a whole (including
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pubic services integration, ICT infrastructure, etc.). By investing resources in each area
and successfully executing the respective plans, Hong Kong will be able to realise the
anticipated impacts, which are discussed in the section below.
6.2 Anticipated impacts
Under the new vision, we expect there to be a significant impact on the constituents of
Hong Kong as stated below:
For the Community, the achievement of the vision would mean more convenience for
the public, and making citizens’ lives easier and smarter. Most public services would be
available on mobile devices for online access anywhere and anytime. The services will
be highly targeted, personalised and fully integrated to give richer user experiences
and maximum convenience. Citizens would also engage with the Government online
with social technologies. For private sector services such as online banking or online
retail shopping, for example, the mobile online customer experience would not only be
a convenient alternative to other channels but will increasingly provide a richer more
rewarding and comprehensive customer experience – often more than what is possible
by physically visiting a branch or shop.
For the business community, the smarter city would be able to build the necessary
infrastructure (e.g. fast ubiquitous high bandwidth access, extensive choice of ICT
services and platforms, e-cheque, e-payment) thereby generating operational
efficiencies and cost savings for businesses. In addition, through the broad promotion
and adoption of e-commerce, businesses will further enhance their capabilities in
reaching to their customers more effectively and more broadly crossing the border
beyond Hong Kong and Greater China. Besides, many e-enabled services would be
fostered to achieve service excellence and further enhance our position as one of the
most advanced service economies in the world.
For the ICT Industry, the smarter city is expected to drive further development of the
ICT industry, expanding the opportunities available. By becoming a role model in
exploiting technologies Hong Kong will provide unique opportunities to the lCT industry
locally – and also provide a great reference point for local companies as they expand.
ICT companies will benefit from easier access to the regional and international markets.
Hong Kong will provide the eco-system to support the development of ICT startups and
also the more mature services and environment needed to encourage the development
of City ICT champions recognised as leaders in their fields both regionally and globally.
The presence of such companies will reinforce Hong Kong’s leadership position, and
also inspire more young people to consider a career in ICT.
For the Government, the enhanced e-enabled public services built on insight gained
from big data and advanced analytics (e.g. data from 1823) will allow civil servants to
respond more effectively to citizens by offering more personalised and targeted
services. In particular, civil servants would be able to provide more face-to-face time in
consulting and helping citizens directly rather than spending time on administrative
matters. By providing common platforms to support government service – both face to
face and on line – Government will be able to provide more integrated and tailored
services – and also do so more efficiently – thus releasing resources to address new
needs. In turn, public services will be able to achieve high customer satisfaction.
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This then is the proposed vision for Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living and in the next
section we go on to recommend how Hong Kong should achieve this vision through a
series of strategic programmes or thrusts.
Examples of how the truly smarter city can make a difference:
Public e-services will be more interactive in nature and the additional benefit that
the Digital ID will allow is a more convenient and integrated experience. General
citizen will be able to get access to most public e-services on a one-stop digital
platform. For example, mothers with newborn babies will usually have many
interactions with various government agencies – such as to sign and retrieve birth
certificates, arrange medical appointments, retrieve personal medical records, order
prescription medicines etc. With the advent of more integrated public services and
digital identities and signatures, all of these activities could be completed by the
mother online from her the comfort of her home while looking after her baby.
General citizen
“I am usually out of town so I rely on the Internet for public
services. I am now amazed by what can be done online, and
the convenience and ease of use. With a digital ID, I can apply
for my driving licence, renew my passport, register my marriage
and retrieve my medical records from hospitals. I have found
many interesting and useful apps with public data. When I drive,
I receive real-time information to pick the fastest route without
traffic jam. I go to restaurants with good hygiene rating, as there
are apps that make use of inspection records. I also know when
not to exercise outdoor due to the availability of accurate air
quality data. Everything now becomes really convenient.”
Young mother with a newborn baby
“I am a young mother with a two-month-old son. I need to
constantly look after my baby and take care of his needs. Living
in a truly smarter city allows me to set up medical appointments
and complete the public services online, while looking after my
baby in the comfort of our home!”
For students, the new vision would deliver a completely new revolutionary elearning experience. Fully e-enabled classrooms and schools will allow students to
have truly personalised education for all subjects, allowing immediate multi-media
connectivity to other students in other classes and other schools for collaboration
projects for example. Technology will move out of the computer laboratory and ICT
education to become an important medium for all education – integrated with the
essential role of teachers. These developments will be revolutionary for the teacher
also, who will be freed from the more mundane routine tasks (e.g. marking
homework) to devote more quality learning time directly with students. E-learning
will not replace the classroom, but rather make classroom time more effective,
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efficient and valuable.
University student
“I am a first year university student. I want to learn more
from my biology courses and always need to work with
my classmates on a number of class projects. The digital
learning platform provides me a truly personalised
learning experience and allows me to collaborate better
with my classmates, all online! This technology is so
cool I am now thinking about a career in technology –
there are many technology companies I would be proud to work for.”
For the elderly, Government will be able to provide the option of receiving services
remotely, rather than queuing up in hospital outpatient clinics. For example. The
increasingly digitally enabled healthcare facilities allow citizens to perform health
checks themselves or to have vital signs monitored remotely. Visiting healthcare
workers can access health records from the citizens’ home to perform medical
procedures.
Elderly citizen
“I am 72 years old and have lived in this city since I was born.
In this smarter city, I can now request most of the public
services online without queuing up in Government office for
hours! I no longer need to keep my medical records myself,
because today I can easily access these records through the
Internet!”
For persons with disabilities, the smarter city would ensure that technology was
implemented in way that enables everyone to access the benefits and would also
exploit technology to provide targeted help. For example map applications could
provide guidance on wheelchair access routes to buildings, or best routes between
two points in the city for example.
Person with disabilities
“I have been using wheelchairs since I was six years old.
Living in this smarter city, my mobile device helps me to
find the most updated wheelchair access routes
wherever I want to go, allowing me to travel conveniently
in the city. Through my mobile devices, I can connect to
the Internet and request for any necessary public
services anytime and anyplace!”
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For people working from home / in mobile office, excellent network
infrastructure that allows 24x7 high bandwidth and reliable Internet connection is
required. Innovative software that help manage diary, arrange meetings, share work
products and facilitate collaboration will also be important. They will enjoy more
work flexibility and potentially benefit from reduced rent and travel cost.
Telecommuter
“I am a freelance designer working from home. I work
with designers all over the world on online collaboration
space, and I present my work pieces to clients using
video conference. Sometimes I work in a coffee shop or
on the road. The excellent mobile Internet network and
easy-to-use cloud-based applications make my work
much more convenient and efficient!”
For the business persons, the smarter city could help them expand into new
markets, generate more revenue, streamline operations, acquire and retain talents,
and embrace corporate social responsibilities. For example, e-cheque payments
can enhance operational efficiencies and lead to cost savings; mobile apps and
digital media could benefit sales and marketing; more automation can cut down
consumption of energy, paper, etc.
ICT startup
“I have started my technology business in this city. I want to
grow my business faster and invest more time to explore
new business opportunities. In this smarter city, I can easily
access pertinent startup information like the availability of
mentorship, network with other startups and access to angel
funding. I can also process cheque payments from my
customers all online, which improves my company’s
operational efficiency and allows me to focus on growing my
core business!”
General businessman
“I have been running my company in Hong Kong for
thirty years. I want to expand my customer base beyond
Hong Kong to different parts of the world. My products
will reach the younger generation – the gen X and Y, the
young adults and kids. My staff will become more
collaborative and productive.
Based in this smarter city, my products are now
marketed and sold over the world using the best ecommerce platforms with excellent mobile apps. I hire the most talented digital
media experts to rejuvenate my company brand image. Now all young adults and
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teenagers love my products. My product design teams all work collaboratively with
digital tools. They all enjoy their work and love their jobs!”
ICT business owner
“I have lots of great ideas, but I need funding to develop
them into products. I am also searching for talents for my
R&D and sales teams for my China business. In this
smarter city, I can access to a rich network of investors,
researchers and patent experts who offer me business
support. With the investments and capital needed, I can
select and hire the best people from an abundance of ICT
talents from universities. They are eager to work with my
business partners in the Mainland to explore the market. With these people, my
business definitely has a bright future.”
For the visitor to Hong Kong, the smarter city offers a seamless hi-tech
experience from the moment of entering Hong Kong up to the point of departure.
Frequent visitors receive personalised and contextualised mobile messages
suggesting special arrangements and bookings at favourite restaurants, or offering
to reserve seats at particular shows for artists that the visitor likes, or proposing
particular tourist attractions to suit the individual, and so forth. The world smarter
city makes the visitor feel immediately welcome and offers tremendous
convenience and free added value to whole visitor experience – which will
encourage the visitor to recommend Hong Kong to friends and family.
Visitor
“I can travel around Hong Kong with 24x7 Internet
connections. It’s amazing! Internet is everywhere in the
city, and I can navigate the city effortlessly! With all these
apps available for my smartphone and tablet, I don’t even
need a guidebook or tour guide in Hong Kong!”
For the civil servant, the enhanced e-Government applications provide her with
the information she needs to understand and respond to the public’s needs, and
allows her to spend more time helping citizens directly rather than spending time on
administrative matters, thereby creating greater job satisfaction and sense of worth
to the community she strives to serve.
Civil servant
“I am a civil servant and my job is to serve the Hong Kong
community. Government is a complex organisation with
many services and sometimes it can be hard to find out
what information we have and what services are
available. Now with our mobile apps it becomes much
easier to access information about our citizens and about
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the services that may be relevant to them. Other than serving the people directly, I
also need to spend time to handle various administrative matters. Thanks to the
enhanced e-Government applications, I can spend more time helping citizens
directly and work with greater efficiency! I am happy to see that I am making a
better community!”
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7.
Strategic thrusts to achieve Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter
Living
7.1 Overview
Figure 18 Formulation of vision and strategic thrusts
Latest technology
development
Strength
Review of Hong Kong’s
current ICT strategy and
development
Review & Trends
(chapter 3 & 4)
Weakness
SWOT analysis
(chapter 5)
Opportunity
Threats
Vision
(chapter 6)
Vision
Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living
Empowering
everyone
through
technology
Igniting
business
innovation
through
exploitation of
technology
Supporting a
thriving Hong
Kong ICT
industry and
R&D
Transforming
and integrating
public services
through
technology
Strategic Thrusts
(chapter 7)
To achieve this vision, we recommend a comprehensive programme of initiatives that
can be grouped under four strategic thrusts:
•
Empowering everyone through technology
•
Igniting business innovation through exploitation of technology
•
Supporting a thriving Hong Kong ICT industry and research and development
•
Transforming and integrating public services through technology.
Each of these four strategic thrusts is further explored in the following sections of this
report.
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7.2 Empowering everyone through technology
ICT now plays such an important part in every aspect of life – education, work, leisure,
entertainment, culture, arts, business and public services – that citizens can more
readily reach their full potential only when they have the confidence, literacy and basic
skills to access and use technology.
In order to achieve the vision, it is vital to ensure that everyone has these basic
capabilities to operate and live in an ICT-rich environment. This does not mean that
everyone has to have deep ICT knowledge / skills, such as sophisticated programming.
Rather, it is about how we appreciate and are at ease in using ICT e.g. accessing the
Internet on a smartphone, playing a game on a tablet, conducting digital commerce
personal / business transactions in an omni-channel manner. This strategic thrust also
drives the availability of high bandwidth Internet access through wired, mobile and/or
other wireless mechanisms throughout all the main areas of the city.
While the primary focus of the vision outlined in this report is the people of Hong Kong,
there is also an opportunity to significantly improve the experience of people visiting
Hong Kong – whether for business, tourism or visiting friends and family. This has the
potential not only to enhance and elevate Hong Kong’s image but also to contribute to
our economy and tourism industry. For example, we should make it economical and
convenient for visitors to become connected and stay online as soon as they arrive by
airplane, boat, train or other private and commercial vehicles. Another example
enabled by a more pervasive and sustained online connectivity is the potential to push
value-added advice / information to visitors (depending on who they are and where
they are) so that they can enjoy a more guided exploration of Hong Kong and its many
attractions.
One important concern is to include and enable the participation of all groups in this
new digital environment – also specifically considering the elderly, persons with
disabilities, those with less / limited financial means, etc. It is also important to look at
the possibilities for technology to improve the quality of life for persons with
disabilities – for example better facilitate persons with disabilities to find and make their
way around the city.
To support the realisation of this thrust, key initiatives include:
•
Providing every citizen with a free and universal Hong Kong Digital ID –
enables convenient and secure use of a much broader range of smarter city eservices (that are more personalised and richer in function) to process everyday
transactions (e.g. e-chequing)
•
Facilitating access to technology and broadband – aims to remove the barriers
that may prevent citizens from enjoying the full benefit of living in one of the leading
digital cities in the world
•
Boosting education by enabling e-learning for the whole curriculum in every
classroom through high bandwidth access for all schools – truly revolutionises
the experience and quality of learning for students in Hong Kong by allowing
multimedia and interactive education with online access to relevant multi-lingual
courses, teaching materials, test evaluations and other e-learning tools; and
liberates teaching professionals to devote more focused attention on individual
students to drive enhanced learning outcomes
•
Including elements of programming in every child’s education programme to
inculcate a generic logical mindset and a proclivity to look to ICT for
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solutions – provides an exciting new way to help our children to become familiar
with harnessing the immense power of technology, to personally develop creative
solutions to everyday problems and to be trained in structured and logical thinking
•
Providing visitors and citizens with targeted information – enriches the
engagement of visitors and citizens via advanced, personalised and multi-media
online experiences; and maximises visitors’ and citizens’ enjoyment and
convenience.
7.3 Igniting business innovation through exploitation of
technology
In recent years, some of the most exciting and influential business developments have
arisen, not from dramatically new technological inventions, but from inspired new ideas
about how to exploit technology. Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Amazon and Alibaba
are all excellent examples of organisations that have driven inspirational technology
exploitation resulting in revolutionary personal, social, industry and business changes
throughout the world.
Innovative ideas are conceptual and ethereal, rather than physical, in nature. This
strategic thrust strives to establish new ways to ignite, nurture and protect such
innovative ideas and to create new collaborative environments where these ideas can
be shared, exchanged and further developed into potential business innovations with
meaningful economic value for Hong Kong.
The variety and volume of business innovations can be further strengthened by
opening up all public sector information (PSI) for use by ICT-savvy entrepreneurs. For
example, experience in the US has shown how broad PSI sharing could electrify public
interest and excitement in the development of new mobile apps which make innovative
use of this information.
To support the realisation of this thrust, key initiatives include:
•
Establishing innovation and collaboration platforms to accelerate innovative
business applications of technology to boost Hong Kong’s competitive
edge – fosters creative and innovative communities to drive vibrant exchange of
ideas leading to the development of exciting and valuable new ICT-enabled
business models / solutions
•
Promoting cloud platforms and knowledge sharing for small and medium
enterprises to help them succeed through increased leveraging of
technology – seeks new ways to stimulate SMEs to increase practical use of new
technologies in order to boost productivity, to achieve greater business success
and to expand employment opportunities for the community
•
Accelerating innovation by making all public sector information available for
use by private and other non-government sectors – unlocks the hidden treasure
trove of PSI datasets for free use by ICT-savvy entrepreneurs, enabling them to
create innovative new applications (with an emphasis on the mobile variety) for use
in Hong Kong and, where proven successful here, potentially for the international
market.
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7.4 Supporting a thriving Hong Kong ICT industry and
research and development
As outlined in the SWOT analysis, Hong Kong’s open and transparent governmental
framework and excellent ICT infrastructure make Hong Kong a fertile ground for ICT
entrepreneurs to grow their innovative ideas into thriving ICT business startups. The
unique advantages of close proximity to Mainland China coupled with Hong Kong’s
longstanding tradition as an important regional business hub can help shape a
relatively unique flavour to Hong Kong’s emerging ICT industry.
This strategic thrust addresses the challenges of how to grow a unique ICT industry in
Hong Kong. A thriving ICT industry is a necessary cornerstone for the new digital
economy. It helps to translate innovation and research into business opportunities and
economic value.
The attraction and retention of the right number, variety and quality of ICT talent is a
critical first component to this proposition. In association with the innovative
environment mentioned in the previous strategic thrust, the right quantum of human
capital and talent will provide the intellectual engine required to drive the ICT industry
and ultimately help to create ICT champions in Hong Kong.
Although we recognise that Hong Kong has a small domestic market, the opportunities
arising from collaboration Mainland are manifold – especially for Research and
Development (R&D). Meanwhile the prevalence of design talent and the extraordinary
mobile penetration in Hong Kong suggests that the unique flavour of the Hong Kong
ICT industry could help establish Hong Kong as a Mobile Centre of Excellence and a
Digital Media Centre of Excellence.
One measure of success for Hong Kong will be any measurable increase in the
number of business startups at the intersection of business and technology and the
emergence of potential ICT champions, amidst a competitive marketplace for talent
and ideas.
To support the realisation of this thrust, key initiatives include:
•
Supporting the evolving ecosystem to groom technology startups – creates
the culture and environment to bring together all the necessary ingredients for
successful growth of new start-ups at the intersection of business and technology
to foster the emergence of Hong Kong ICT champions
•
Growing top talent in ICT and business technology application – puts in place
the right professional frameworks and provides more focused training in
collaboration with ICT industry leaders – for the mutual advantage of prospective
employers and employees alike
•
Establishing Hong Kong as a Centre of Excellence for Multi-Platform Apps –
actively facilitates and encourages more business opportunities, events and
competitions for multi-platform solutions
•
Continuing to develop a Cloud Computing and Data Centre Hub – tries more
effective promotion methods for cloud computing and data centre provisioning
•
Exploiting convergence to combine Hong Kong’s strengths in the media,
creative and technology industries to make the city a Centre of Excellence in
Digital Media – builds a collaborative and innovative platform for professionals,
amateurs and regular citizens to innovate, co-create and distribute new content
through the latest digital media
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•
Continuing to leverage Hong Kong’s unique position by enabling ICT
businesses to access Mainland opportunities – seizes full advantage of the
physical and cultural proximity to expand the market for highly-prized solutions and
services derived from Hong Kong’s business acumen and technological innovation
into the Mainland.
7.5 Transforming and integrating public services through
technology
Over the last decade, e-Government services have evolved from the online provision of
static historical public information to a more citizen-centric interactive multi-media twoway customer experience – for both citizens and businesses. New and emerging
technologies are exponentially expanding governments’ capacity to provide next
generation public services.
This strategic thrust seeks to build upon the Hong Kong Government’s achievements in
evolving its services and interaction relationships with the community. Mobile
technologies, in particular, offer a transformational channel for more personalised
anytime and anywhere services. With one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the
world, Hong Kong is ideally placed to take the next step from e-Government to mobile
government, fundamentally transforming the delivery and coverage of public services.
The key benefit is that mobile government offers a better, more convenient, more
integrated and wider range of services which can be highly personalised and locationsensitive. Through the shift from e-Government to mobile government and a continued
acceleration of mobile penetration, there is an expectation that public services should
be mobile as a default.
At the same time, the Smarter City provides an explosion in volumes of real-time data
through intelligent sensors which offer valuable real-time multi-media location-sensitive
information that can be instantly communicated to citizens through their mobile devices.
To support the realisation of this thrust, key initiatives include:
•
Delivering mobile government to citizens and businesses at their fingertips –
easy access anywhere, anytime – makes multi-platform the default channels of
choice for online e-services – to increase service quality, to delight and to increase
productivity of the world’s number-one “mobile community”
•
Integrating and targeting services tailoring to individual needs – designs and
delivers more personalised e-services – tailored to match individual needs and
personal requirements – to provide the type of service excellence and operational
efficiency for citizens and businesses in Hong Kong
•
Establishing a Smarter City infrastructure through further digitisation and
Internet of Things and utilise Big Data to manage the thriving and growing
city – expands the coverage of sensory and other intelligent devices and further
exploit other digitisation technologies throughout the smarter city – then synthesise
and analyse the mass of resulting data to produce insights and solutions for the
benefit of the community as a whole.
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8.
Programmes in support of the strategic thrusts
8.1 Programmes
In order to realise the strategic thrusts suggested above, we have proposed a series of
connected initiatives. The following table summarises the initiatives and the associated
areas of actions against each strategic thrust. Details of each initiative and the
associated actions are documented in detail in Chapter 8.2 for further reference.
Thrust #1: Empowering everyone through technology
Initiatives
Potential areas of actions
(a.) Make Digital ID freely available and more
convenient to use for all citizens
(b.) Continue the growth in development of eGovernment using Digital ID
(c.) Work with banks to launch e-cheque
1.
Providing every citizen with a
free and universal Hong Kong
Digital ID
2.
Facilitating access to technology
and broadband
3.
Boosting education by enabling
e-learning for the whole
curriculum in every classroom
through high bandwidth access
for all schools
4.
Including elements of
programming in every child’s
education programme to
inculcate a generic logical
mindset and a proclivity to look to
ICT for solutions
(a.) Promote the benefits of programming education
(b.) Strengthen programming learning for children
(c.) Support teachers in teaching programming
Providing visitors and citizens
with targeted information
(a.) Facilitate more mobile applications for visitors
and citizens leveraging Wi-Fi services
5.
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(a.) Encourage and facilitate ICT adoption for
persons with disabilities
(b.) Further promote web accessibility to the
community
(c.) Encourage more leverage of mobile technology
in digital inclusion programmes
(d.) Facilitate internet access through Wi-Fi hotspots
(a.) High bandwidth broadband access to all
schools and all classrooms
(b.) Equipping every classroom with the required
technology for teachers and students to access
and participate in interactive on-line learning
(c.) Support and training for teachers to enable
them to make most effective use of this radically
different learning and teaching environment
(d.) Encourage high-quality online education for
students
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Thrust #2: Igniting business innovation through exploitation of technology
Initiatives
1.
2.
3.
Potential areas of actions
Establishing innovation and
collaboration platforms to
accelerate innovative business
applications of technology to
boost Hong Kong’s competitive
edge
(a.) Strengthen technology transfer from universities
(b.) Drive business excellence with a broader
definition of innovation
Promoting cloud platforms and
knowledge sharing for small and
medium enterprises to help them
succeed through increased
leveraging of technology
(a.) Promote SME cloud platform
(b.) Encourage collaborative information sharing on
business and technology innovation for SMEs
Accelerating innovation by
making all public sector
information available for use by
private and other nongovernment sectors
(a.) Make PSI electronically available in machine
readable formats for easy re-use as default
(b.) Encourage other public organisations to release
PSI
(c.) Prioritise the provision of PSI for high valueadded services
Thrust #3: Supporting a thriving Hong Kong ICT industry and research and
development
Initiatives
Potential areas of actions
1.
Supporting the evolving
ecosystem to groom technology
startups
(a.) Build a digital platform for technology startups
(b.) Facilitate startups to foster entrepreneurial
culture and encourage cross-fertilisations of
ideas
2.
Growing top talent in ICT and
business technology application
(a.) Develop ICT professional recognition framework
(b.) Enhance training with industry collaboration
(c.) Enhance ICT professional image
3.
Establishing Hong Kong as a
Centre of Excellence for MultiPlatform Apps
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(a.) Provide incentives to drive multi-platform
solution development for the underprivileged
groups
(b.) Facilitate experience sharing and publicise
success cases
(c.) Explore and facilitate multi-platform business
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solutions for transactions and payments
(a.) Promote Hong Kong as a prime location for
data centres
(b.) Develop and promote cloud computing
standards, best practices and guidelines for
service consumers and providers
(c.) Lead by example in adopting cloud services
across the Government
4.
Continuing to develop a Cloud
Computing and Data Centre Hub
5.
Exploiting convergence to
combine Hong Kong’s strengths
in the media, creative and
technology industries to make
the city a Centre of Excellence in
Digital Media
(a.) Enable connections and collaboration between
media content providers with ICT companies to
create a cluster of digital media companies
(b.) Facilitate experience sharing and publicise
success cases
6.
Continuing to leverage Hong
Kong’s unique position by
enabling ICT businesses to
access Mainland opportunities
(a.) Continue to facilitate industry collaboration
across the boundary
(b.) Facilitate more concerted effort in marketing
and promotion of Hong Kong’s ICT industry
Thrust #4: Transforming and integrating public services through technology
Initiatives
Potential areas of actions
1.
Delivering mobile government to
citizens and businesses at their
fingertips – easy access
anywhere, anytime
(a.) Create multi-platform solutions for existing
public services across all Government
departments, where possible
(b.) Make multi-platform by default for future eGovernment services across all Government
departments
2.
Integrating and targeting
services tailoring to individual
needs
(a.) Develop and promote more integrated solutions
for e-Government services
(b.) Encourage the use of the Government Cloud
Platform (GovCloud) and shared services by all
Government departments
3.
Establishing a Smarter City
infrastructure through further
digitisation and Internet of Things
(a.) Promote the deployment of sensing or IoT
devices
(b.) Encourage data sharing between Government
departments
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and utilise Big Data to manage
the thriving and growing city
(c.) Explore and encourage further productive use
of ICT
(d.) Promulgate standards, approach and guidelines
for Big Data across Government departments
8.2 Empowering everyone through technology
Technology now plays such an important part in every aspect of life. Everyone should
have the basic access, confidence and literacy in technology to improve their quality of
life. The Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living strategy would continue to address the
challenges that some groups may find it harder to fully participate in this digital
environment, e.g. elderly people, persons with disabilities, and people with less means.
Our children should be well equipped in schools to make the best of technology in their
everyday lives and future careers. While the Hong Kong population is the primary focus,
there is also an opportunity to significantly improve the experience of people visiting
Hong Kong – whether for business or leisure travel.
Within the programme supporting this strategic thrust, the key initiatives that offer new
and exciting opportunities include:
•
Providing every citizen with a free and universal Hong Kong Digital ID
•
Facilitating access to technology and broadband
•
Boosting education by enabling e-learning for the whole curriculum in every
classroom through high bandwidth access for all schools
•
Including elements of programming in every child’s education programme to
inculcate a generic logical mindset and a proclivity to look to ICT for solutions
•
Providing visitors and citizens targeted information
8.2.1.
Providing every citizen with a free and universal Hong Kong
Digital ID
Current position in Hong Kong
Digital ID can be positioned as a secure and convenient tool to use various e-services.
The Hong Kong citizens and businesses increasingly use e-services in their everyday
life, as evidenced by their usage of e-commerce and e-Government. For instance, the
number of e-banking accounts in Hong Kong has been growing, in which the numbers
of accounts of individuals and businesses reaching 8.40 million and 0.76 million
respectively in 2012 37. A leading Mainland business-to-consumer e-commerce website
37
Reference: Figures from Hong Kong Monetary Authority
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reported 1.4 million registered users from Hong Kong in 2013. 38 Also, the eGovernment usage is on a steady increase, reaching 12,900 million times in 2012. 39
With increasing e-services, it is an opportune time to review the need for a unique and
unified Digital ID trusted by community, businesses and the Government to conduct eGovernment and e-commerce activities amid the increasing security exposure on the
Internet.
Figure 19 e-Banking accounts of individual and companies
10
Corporate e-Banking accounts
0.76
Individual e-Banking accounts
0.66
8
0.57
0.59
0.53
6
0.45
0.37
4
8.4
0.31
7.0
0.27
5.7
0.18
2
2.2
6.2
4.9
0.12
1.6
7.6
2.8
3.3
3.8
0
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Reference: Figures from Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Under the Electronic Transactions Ordinance, Hong Kong has such recognised Digital
ID already, namely digital certificates for individuals and organisations to perform
legally binding online transactions where confidentiality and integrity of data,
38
Reference: South China Morning Post, “Alibaba celebrates 1.2 million users on Taobao in Hong Kong”, 11 December,
2012.
39
Reference: Figures from internal surveys done by OGCIO
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authentication of genuine users and non-repudiation of completed transactions have to
be safeguarded. However the adoption of digital certificates by the general public has
not been highly popular. The active digital certificate users (individual) were 63,000 in
2012 40, while the e-banking accounts of individuals were as mentioned earlier 8.40
million in 2012. The adoption of digital certificates by the general public has not been
highly popular principally because of the absence of “killer apps” that require the use of
digital certificate. Therefore, there has been little perceived benefit to date. Availability
of such “killer apps”, coupled with greater convenience in registering, renewing and
paying, and usage for the digital certificate, will provide the necessary impetus to spur
the wide adoption of e-Identity in Hong Kong.
Potential and new possibilities
We envision a set of Digital ID that every citizen can voluntarily use to authenticate
most public and private sector eInternational experience and benefits
services. Digital ID can enable a wide
range of possibilities of e-services, and
For Estonia, the country’s Digital ID has
the use of a single Digital ID will simplify
become an increasingly important part of
complexities. The e-cheque and future
the citizens’ everyday lives as they utilise
health services set out below are just
various e-services. Their Digital ID can be
two examples of the many e-services
used to authenticate identity and render a
that would be frequently used and
digital signature. Estonian citizens and
require high security.
permanent residents are legally obliged to
e-cheque, empowered by Digital ID, can
possess the Digital ID from the age of 15
bring Hong Kong at the forefront of the
and around 1.2 million digital identity cards
world in terms of e-services innovation.
have been issued so far. In 2011, around 3
According to HKMA, a total of 110
million online authentication and 2 million
million paper cheques were issued in
online signatures were recorded. The
2011 41. If e-cheque is widely adopted,
Digital ID can be in form of national ID card
both the banks and the businesses can
(similar to the smart identity card in Hong
save a lot of manual reconciliation effort
Kong), Digi-ID (a smart card) and mobile
in issuing and redeeming paper cheques. ID card (a SIM card to be placed in mobile
Meanwhile, citizens can save visits to
device), and has been used in many ebank branches and instantly redeem eservices where ID verification is needed,
cheque during even in non-office hours.
such as e-Tax, e-Banking, e-Heath
Records, e-Tickets, etc.
Digital ID is beyond another set of
secure and convenient account for eservices. It is a powerful tool to bring out innovation and possibilities that future eservices providers can offer. Like the provision of free Hong Kong Identity (HKID) card
for physical
International experience and benefits
40
Reference: Figures provided by the recognised certification authorities.
41
Reference: Hong Kong Monetary Authority “A New Era for Retail Payment: Building a Diversified Platform for Mobile,
Internet-based and Electronic Payments”
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identification and authentication, the
Government can consider providing free
Digital ID for every citizen for voluntary
identification and authentication in the
digital world to enjoy secure and userfriendly e-services. While Digital ID
would be available for every adult, it is
also possible that Digital ID will be
granted to every child since childbirth,
with the ID managed by parents or other
authorised persons. This will facilitate
the adoption and usage of Digital ID
related services.
On top of the traditional Digital ID, Finland
offers mobile Digital ID. Many e-services
including e-Government service providers
in Finland rely on mobile Digital ID. Three
Finnish mobile operators launched mobile
Digital ID in 2011 in full cooperation with
the Finnish government. Mobile ID is
convenient as the user only has to
remember a personal identification number
(PIN) code in order to use the mobile
Digital ID without a card reader.
Recommendations
We propose to provide every citizen with a free, convenient Digital ID. Here are the
benefits:
•
Important enabler for every member of the community to fully exploit and
participate in the digital world in a secure and authenticated manner (e.g. ecommerce, citizen engagement, digital health record management, e-learning
resources and online examination, students’ learning portfolio, etc.)
•
Providing a digital tool or platform with the following characteristics – nonrepudiation, integrity, secure authentication, and confidentiality. Some of these
characteristics are backed by the law
•
Secure an integrated user experience in managing multiple e-services
•
Shift community mindset from ‘do I need a digital certificate’ to ‘how can I make the
most of my Digital ID’
•
Potential for private sector to adopt Digital ID to reduce costs and increase
convenience since there is no need for issuing multiple log-in IDs and tokens for
different organisations.
•
Create an e-platform for engagement between the Government and citizens
Potential areas for action
1. Make Digital ID freely available and more convenient to use for all citizens –
Short term – The Government should consider bundling the Smart ID card and
Digital ID (digital certificate) for free. The inclusion of Digital ID with the identity card
should be voluntary. It should be noted Smart ID card is one of the optional
vehicles to store the Digital ID. The Digital ID may reside in other devices, though
its free provision comes more natural if it is bundled with Smart ID Card. In order to
make the Digital ID more user-friendly, enhancing administrative measures can be
considered.
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Long term – As Immigration Department evaluates the launch of the next smart
identity card project, the user-friendliness of Digital ID can be improved through the
latest technology (e.g. contactless ID card).
Meanwhile, a mobile Digital ID is worth exploring in the long term to further
enhance the convenience of using Digital ID, since the mobile penetration rate is
high (around 228.4%) in Hong Kong. The detailed implementation feasibility of
mobile Digital ID should be reviewed based on the next smart identity card.
2. Continue the growth in development of e-Government using Digital ID – The
Government should continue to develop more e-Government services and
particularly more targeted and integrated services, e.g. an “e-Citizen” account that
could provide citizens with an easy and convenient access to many e-services. The
e-Citizen account, subject to the citizen’s consent, can integrate all e-Government
services into one portal and enable a seamless experience without prior set-up
effort, e.g. vehicle and driving licence renewal, passport renewal, payment of
Government and utilities bills, etc. Digital mailbox can also integrate with e-Citizen
account for identifiable communication with the Government (and the private sector)
and the storage of important personal documents (e.g. report cards, bill statements,
etc.).
Also, the “e-Citizen” account should ensure a good privacy data protection. For
example, Belgium offers an e-Government service called “My File” which reveals to
the authenticated citizen the government officials who have accessed their
personal data over the last 6 months.
3. Work with banks to launch e-cheque – Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is
working with banks to launch e-cheque and target to roll-out e-cheque by the end of
2014. The free Digital ID can be a convenient yet secure and non-repudiating
means of signature. Therefore, the use of Digital ID for e-cheque and other
financial services would be voluntary.
8.2.2.
Facilitating access to technology and broadband
Current position in Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s robust ICT infrastructure supports the world-leading mobile subscriber
penetration rate (nearly 228.4 %) and broadband penetration rate (nearly 90%). The
high penetration rates of mobile and broadband significantly contribute to the city’s
rapid ICT developments and strong economic growth for its pillar industries. At the
same time, the Government’s pro-competition approach to regulation continues to
ensure fair competition and allows the market to drive telecommunication infrastructure
coverage, prices, speed and content to best serve the public interest. The availability of
immediate access to an advanced wireless digital network for the general population is
a necessary prerequisite for the modern knowledge based society.
To facilitate wireless broadband access for the general public in Government premises,
the Government has launched GovWiFi to provide Wi-Fi access to the public at around
410 designated government premises which include public libraries, public enquiry
service centres, sports venues, cultural and recreation centres, cooked food markets,
job centres, community halls, major parks and government buildings and offices, as
well as a number of major tourist attractions. 40 more premises have been added in
2013, plus an overall improvement in both speed and supported protocols. Meanwhile,
commercial network operators are providing public Wi-Fi access at over 16,000 Wi-Fi
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hotspots in the city, which can be found in convenience stores, buses and more than
1,000 telephone booths. MTR offers free Wi-Fi service at all MTR stations and some
network operators also offer the same in public areas at over 150 public rental estates
and about 30 shopping centres of the Housing Authority. The locations of GovWiFi
premises and registered Wi-Fi access points are marked in Appendix E.
While the ICT infrastructure for broader population is robust and affordable, digital
inclusion remains an important topic for an ICT strategy for Hong Kong. Digital
inclusion refers to the social inclusion that ensures individuals and persons with
disabilities have access to, and skills to use ICT. The usage of computers among the
elderly and persons with disabilities has shown signs of improvement since the last
Digital 21 Strategy published in 2008 (as shown in figure 9).
The Government has already been actively promoting the importance of having equal
access to online information and services for all groups within the community through
its own implementation, education and the recognition of best practices. The Web
Accessibility Campaign promotes awareness and wider adoption of web accessibility
design for adoption on public and private websites.
Lastly, a comprehensive digital inclusion programme, from one-stop portal to assistive
technology, has been launched to target a wide range of community members, e.g. the
elderly, persons with disabilities, children in low income family, etc.
Potential and new possibilities
The knowledge and usage of ICT by
persons with disabilities may remain low
compared with the mainstream
community partly due to high cost of
traditional computing devices and easeof-use. The mobility and highly easy-touse interface of smartphones and tablet
computers opens up ample opportunities
to facilitate wider ICT adoption among
persons with disabilities. With mobile
technology, the interfaces can be easily
customised to facilitate reading and
usage on-the-go, and the mobile
technologies are more affordable than
traditional devices.
International experience and benefits
Mobile accessibility applications for New
York City (NYC) were designed to
integrate geo-location and mapping
technologies with transportation/POI (Point
of Interest) accessibility data. The
application looks up information about
accessible public and private
transportation and route and identifies
accessible points of interest. Also, the
mobile application can customise search
criteria to filter accessibility information by
personal needs and preferences, and
allow the users to rate and comment about
the accessibility of city systems and points
of interest.
Recommendations
We propose that the Government should continue to facilitate ICT adoption for persons
with disabilities and leverage more mobile technology in the digital inclusion
programmes. The benefits include:
•
Provide equal opportunities and e-services to every member of the society
•
Bring economic, social, cultural and health benefits of ICT to all members of the
community
Potential areas for action
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1. Encourage and facilitate ICT adoption for persons with disabilities – The
Government should continue to implement measures to encourage and facilitate
ICT adoption among persons with disabilities in order to enhance their quality of life
and help them integrate within the knowledge-based society.
2. Further promote web accessibility to the community – To sustain the
momentum, the Government should continue with the current efforts on instilling
awareness among current web designers and incentivising wider adoption on nongovernment websites.
3. Encourage more leverage of mobile technology in digital inclusion
programmes – The Government should support non-government organisations
(NGOs) to design mobile applications for target digital inclusion segments. (Please
also refer to the first area of action under ‘Establishing Hong Kong as a Mobile
Centre of Excellence.
4. Facilitate internet access through Wi-Fi hotspots – The Government can work
with the private sector in opening up more Wi-Fi hotspots for the convenience of
the public. For example, the Office of the Communications Authority has issued
guidance note 42 to facilitate public wireless service operators in the installation of
their Wi-Fi equipment on Government facilities.
8.2.3.
Boosting education by enabling e-learning for the whole
curriculum in every classroom through high bandwidth access for
all schools
Current position in Hong Kong
The Government launched a three-year ‘Pilot Scheme on e-learning’ in 2011. A total of
61 primary, secondary and special schools participated in 21 research and
development projects to explore how e-learning could be implemented in different
school settings so as to cater for learner diversity and encourage students to conduct
self-directed and life-long learning.
In addition, the Government provides all public sector schools annually with a
Composite IT Grant (CITG). The grant can be used in expenditure items related to IT in
education, such as Internet service fee, upgrading and replacement of IT facilities
(including wireless network facilities), and purchase of digital resources materials for
learning. A one-off grant of $200 million was disbursed in 2008 for schools to replace
and upgrade their IT facilities and another one-off grant of $50 million was given in
2011 for schools to purchase e-learning resources.
Figure 20 Distribution of school internet bandwidth
42
Reference: OFCA, “Guidance Note for Submission of Application for Installing Micro-cell Base Station on Highway
Facilities or on Unleased and Unallocated Government Land.”
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1.4%
1.7%
24.6%
< 30 Mbps
30 to < 50 Mbps
41.0%
50 to < 100 Mbps
100 Mbps
> 100 to < 1000 Mbps
> 1000 Mbps
19.2%
12.1%
Reference: Figures from Education Bureau, 2013.
Figure 21 Distribution of school Wi-Fi coverage
Reference: Figures from Education Bureau, 2013.
International experience and benefits
By 2015, South Korea intends to deliver
education to its citizens over computers
through online training programmes and
virtual learning environments. South Korea
plans to transfer from the traditional paper
textbooks to digital textbooks and allow
students to leave their heavy backpacks
and explore the world beyond the
classroom.
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Potential and new possibilities
connected television sets, PCs, tablet
computers and laptops. Quality will be
maintained and costs will be lowered by
the government supporting an opencontent marketplace.
Technology now has the potential to
transform the way that education is
conceived and delivered. Technology
enables various modes of learning to be
chosen by teachers or students. For example, learning can occur with students
interacting face to face, or learning can be made self-paced and occur anytime
anywhere, and students can still engage in the exchange of ideas or information
through new technologies. ICT enables teachers to work collaboratively, discuss ideas,
and promote information much more effectively.
On the other hand, the Internet is generating more content and delivering more data to
users than ever before, and e-learning usually contains multimedia that would need a
much demanding Internet bandwidth. This drives the need for more bandwidth and
higher speed. Over time, technological advancement and the competitive
telecommunications environment have lowered the cost of high speed Internet access,
and schools should increase bandwidth connection in order to take advantage of web
services like streaming video, interactive content, and teaching via video conferencing
in an education environment.
In effect technology has moved from the computer laboratory to being an integral part
of leading edge education (e.g. real-time, interactive and visual multi-media e-learning
tool) – in every subject and classroom.
Recommendations
We propose that Hong Kong launch a
programme to radically expand the use
of technology in schools so that
interactive on-line learning becomes a
major supplement to the core face to
face education by teachers. The benefits
include:
International experience and benefits
In the US, schools are encouraged and
recommended to improve their Internet
speed over time. The State Educational
Technology Directors Association (SETDA)
recommends that every school should
attain an external Internet connection of at
least 100Mbps for 1,000 students / staff by
2014-2015 school year and at least 1Gbps
for 1,000 students / staff by the 2017-2018
school year.
•
More effective learning in all
subjects
•
Building students’ digital literacy
and skills
•
Opening students’ minds to the
broad potential of technology – beginning their journey to understanding how to
combine business and technology for their later careers
•
Building the IT literacy and skills of teachers so that they are in a better position
to enthuse and educate their students and prepare them for life in a technology
rich digital world.
Potential areas for action
1. High bandwidth broadband access to all schools and all classrooms – The
bandwidth should be capable of handling e-learning through Wi-Fi for access to
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multi-media, including good quality video streaming, for most students
simultaneously
2. Equipping every classroom with the required technology for teachers and
students to access and participate in interactive on-line learning – Every
classroom should be set up in a way that students can collaborate and contribute to
each other and teachers can easily facilitate the students in the process of
collaboration.
3. Support and training for teachers to enable them to make most effective use
of this radically different learning and teaching environment – More technical
assistance for teachers and training on using the classroom ICT infrastructure and
e-learning should be in place to enable teachers to focus on the new mode of
teaching.
4. Encourage high-quality online education for students – Education providers
are encouraged to leverage ICT to enhance the quality and effectiveness of
teaching and learning at their institutions. We witness the rapid emergence of
massive open online course (MOOC) in the past decade. It is opportune to
consider how Hong Kong can leverage on the use of MOOC to enhance the quality
and effectiveness of teaching and learning in post-secondary institutions.
8.2.4.
Including elements of programming in every child’s education
programme to inculcate a generic logical mindset and a proclivity
to look to ICT for solution
Current position in Hong Kong
ICT education in Hong Kong consists of Computer Literacy targeting secondary 1 – 3
and ICT curriculum targeting secondary 4 - 6. At primary level, modular Computer
Awareness Programmes are developed where schools may allocate special periods
and/or integrate them into appropriate learning areas.
Currently, programming is embedded into ICT education. For primary schools, one out
of the eight modules in Computer Awareness Programme covers basic programming to
teach students to draw simple shapes. For secondary 1 - 3 students, 17% of Computer
Literacy curriculum covers programming on ‘LOGO’ 43 to perform arithmetic operations
and manipulate text and sound. For secondary 4 -6 students, the ICT curriculum
compulsory part occupies 145 hours, of which 20 hours (or 14%) is Basic Programming
Concept covering problem-solving procedures, algorithm design and algorithm testing.
Another 75 hours of Software Development is an elective part where students can
choose for in-depth study.
According to the 2012 Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE)
examination, around 8,000 students (or 11% of total HKDSE students) took the
examination for ICT curriculum. For other non-core subjects like Economics, Physics,
43
LOGO is a programming language commonly used to teach students the basics of programming.
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Biology and Chemistry, each subject was taken by over 22% 44. For ICT curriculum,
only 15% students chose Software Development as elective part (as shown below).
Figure 22 Percentage of HKDSE students taking ICT Curriculum and elective parts
89%
11%
Multimedia Production and
Website Development
Softw are
71%
15% Development
11% Database
Data Communication
3% and Netw orking
Percentage of HKDSE students
taking ICT Curriculum
Breakdow n of ICT Curriculum
elective part
Reference: Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA), “2012 HKDSE Entry Statistics”
The above statistics may suggest that Hong Kong secondary 4 - 6 students may have
a lower degree of interest in choosing ICT and programming. Even among students
taking ICT, more students have Multimedia Production and Web Site Development as
an elective over Software Development. This is an interesting contrast that most digital
native 45 students do not choose to study ICT curriculum over other subjects like the
Science subjects at secondary 4-6. The phenomena may somehow be related to the
subject/modules offered by schools as well as career aspirations and pathways.
Potential and new possibilities
According to the Education Bureau, use of ICT for learning and teaching is common,
especially at primary level. In addition, from information gathered at the review study
for the Third IT in Education Strategy, adoption of innovative pedagogical practices
using technologies are emerging but remain on trial basis. Furthermore, while students
are well versed in using ICT to manage information, they may not fully demonstrate the
acquisition of essential business and social skills such as problem solving,
collaboration, creativity, etc. More opportunities should be opened for students to selflearn and share knowledge with peers through ICT.
Looking across the learning of programming in both primary and secondary schools,
we see opportunities to strengthen the programming opportunities starting from primary
44
Reference: 2012 HKDSE Entry Statistics,
http://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/DocLibrary/HKDSE/Exam_Report/Examination_Statistics/dseexamstat12_2.pdf
45
According to Gartner, a digital native is a person who was born during or after the general introduction of digital
technologies and through interacting with digital technology from an early age, has a greater understanding of its
concepts.
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schools so that students can progress and accumulate programming knowledge over
the years like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, etc.
We need to emphasise that the primary
goal of programming is not to equip our
International experience and benefits
students with programming capabilities
The US Government is working with high
but to encourage their active exploitation
schools to ensure that knowledge and
of technology for problem solving. We
thinking gained through programming are
see programming as one of the
relevant for the future whether the students
important elements to realise the
are likely to pursue an advanced ICT
potential of technology, much like
academic degree or not.
arithmetic in Mathematics. Through
programming, our students will have
hands-on opportunities to exercise creativity, and train up their logical thinking from a
technology perspective.
By incorporating more programming
opportunities in our school education,
our students should grow up with a
mind-set to exploit technology intuitively
and efficiently in solving their everyday
life problem. This will in turn groom our
future leaders with confidence and ability
to look to broader technology, not just
programming, as one of the most critical
tools to create enterprising opportunities
and transform our lives, economy and
society.
International experience and benefits
In Australia, a draft Technologies
curriculum has been designed and
published for children from kindergarten
through to secondary school which is
intended to ensure that students “become
confident developers of digital solutions”.
At secondary school level students will be
expected to “use software tools
appropriately and ethically to produce …
digital solutions that create enterprising
opportunities and transform lives and
societies.”
When we look at students’ option in their
study at S4-6 with lower interest in ICT
curriculum and Software Development
elective part (as shown in the above graph), we may see that our students tend to
favour to be digital consumers, rather
than digital solution creators. Students
International experience and benefits
are comfortable with using technology
Estonia introduced a pilot scheme to some
without knowing the “mechanics” behind
Estonian schools in 2012, which is a
it. We need to embrace and enrich both
computer programming study for all
dimensions.
children attending school from the age of 6
Learning and understanding
years old. In the future it is anticipated that
programming can help demystify the
the programme will expand and include
technology and make students
young adults who wish to carry on ICT
comfortable with technology. For
activities outside of the classroom. The
students who do not go on an ICT
programme’s goal is to eventually become
career, they would still likely need to
a part of the standard educational
make sure of technology in their daily life curriculum - just like mathematics and
to solve their problems.
language studies.
Technology is becoming integrated or
even embedded into most problem-solving skills in the digital era, regardless of an
individual’s occupation.
Recommendations
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We propose that programming opportunities, in but not exclusive in computer curricula
should be strengthened in schools so as to help demystify technology, encourage more
logical thinking among students and provide a hands-on opportunity to nurture
creativity and innovation as well as problem-solving using ICT. The benefits are:
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•
Instil students’ mindset of “ICT as a
powerful tool to be exploited to solve
challenges in everyday life”
•
Empower our young generation with
sufficient digital literacy and
knowledge to benefit from the
convenience that ICT brings
•
Ensure Hong Kong’s innovative and
knowledge-based culture is nurtured
to compete globally
•
Teach logical thinking skills and help
give a more rounded education for
the digital age
•
Inculcate generic logical thinking and
the use of ICT solutions for problem
solving.
Potential areas for action
International experience and benefits
In the US, the “Verizon Innovative App
Challenge” provides the opportunity for
middle school and high school students,
working with a faculty advisor, to use their
Science, Technology, Engineering and
Math (STEM) knowledge, their ingenuity,
and their creativity to come up with an
original mobile app concept that
incorporates STEM and addresses a need
or problem in their school or community.
Programming education is a core element
in STEM, and students are coached by
specialist on using programming for
application developing. The Challenge
provides an engaging and empowering
learning experience to increase student
interest and knowledge in STEM and
mobile technology.
1. Promote the benefits of programming– The major benefits of programming to
instil students’ mindset of active exploitation of technology to solve problems should
be conveyed to schools, parents and students. For example, students can
approach programming in an engaging and practical way through the development
of mobile applications. Schools should encourage students to participate in
programming related competitions such as the Hong Kong Olympiad in Informatics
and the International Olympiad in Informatics to stimulate their interest in computing
science.
2. Strengthen programming learning for children – Programming elements in the
existing computer curricula can be further enriched for primary and secondary 1-3
students. Development of problem-solving skills and creativity through the learning
of programming should be strengthened. More opportunities and examples should
be provided for students to understand how to code and program, as well as
applying technology to solve real-life problems. The enriched curriculum will help
students understand the importance of ICT, and how their career and future society
will benefit and transform with ICT.
3. Support teachers in teaching programming – More professional development
programmes as well as learning and teaching materials on programming should be
developed and provided in various subject areas so as to support teachers’
capabilities and interest in programming
8.2.5.
Providing visitors and citizens with targeted information
Current position in Hong Kong
Hong Kong has a vibrant tourism industry and received over 40 million in 2011. As a
modern city, Hong Kong needs to satisfy visitors’ expectation of low-cost access to
information and staying connected.
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Visitors to Hong Kong can access the Internet conveniently when they are in Hong
Kong, using the GovWiFi at over 2,200 hotspots in some 410 Government premises
like sports venues, major parks, as well as a number of tourist attractions and other
public Wi-Fi at over 16,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the city, which can be found in MTR
stations, convenience stores, buses and more than 1,000 telephone booths.
Besides Wi-Fi connection, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) has listed out over
10 mobile applications for visitors, providing information of popular tourist spots, events
and transportation arrangement. At selected Wi-Fi hotspots, visitors are allowed to
browse HKTB’s DiscoverHongKong.com website and download HKTB’s mobile
applications for free. Over 1.5 million downloads of HKTB mobile applications have
been recorded as of April 2013. The private sector has also developed many other
mobile applications to provide geo-spatial information to help visitors tour around the
city. Besides visitors, Hong Kong citizens who travel around the city can also use these
mobile applications.
Potential and new possibilities
Mobile devices have nowadays become
the major platform for disseminating and
International experience and benefits
receiving information for most overseas
Mountain View is a city in Silicon Valley. A
visitors. We see that mobile technology
leading ICT company headquartered in
will play an increasing important role for
Mountain View provides unlimited and free
visitors in Hong Kong, given the
Wi-Fi to the entire city, but getting online
ubiquitous and user-friendly Wi-Fi
connectivity and mobile data coverage in through Wi-Fi will require using the
services from the ICT company. Mountain
Hong Kong. HKTB is formulating
View represents a snapshot of a potential
initiatives including location-based
future where access is treated like
services to encourage visitors’
browsing - provided for free in return for
participation in events in Hong Kong.
relevant, contextual advertising.
New travel applications for mobile
devices can be explored to assist
visitors in pre-trip itinerary planning, in-town navigation and post-trip sharing. The
public sector information (PSI) datasets on tourism information, once available, can be
leveraged in the travel mobile applications to facilitate a pleasant and digital experience
in Hong Kong. In addition, the social media allows visitors and citizens to share their
experiences with friends and relatives instantly to promote Hong Kong.
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Figure 23 Digital experience for visitors
Recommendations
We propose that the Government should continue to encourage and facilitate the
private sector to further strengthen Hong Kong’s Wi-Fi services with easy access
(please refer to the fourth area of action under ‘Facilitating access to technology and
broadband’) and mobile applications to visitors. The benefits are:
•
Capitalise on the advantage of robust Wi-Fi coverage and mobile app industry for
visitors
•
Delight visitors with a personalised virtual tour guide to navigate and experience an
original Hong Kong
•
Strengthen Hong Kong as Asia’s World City and a top tourist destination for visitors.
Potential areas for action
1. Facilitate more mobile applications for visitors leveraging Wi-Fi services –
The Government can develop more mobile applications for tourists. Also, the
Government can provide more Public Sector Information (PSI) related to tourist
spots for the private sector to leverage on tourist mobile applications.
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8.3 Igniting business innovation through exploitation of
technology
To compete with other advanced global cities, the capability of Hong Kong’s
commercial sector to innovate is critical to its economic growth and competitiveness.
Innovation, which includes research on new ideas, and development of value-added
services and practical applications, could lead to a demand for high-value jobs in Hong
Kong, expand the export of its products and services, and drive growth in a variety of
industries. Through the active exploitation of technology (including the business use of
information, application, infrastructure, etc.), both large corporates and small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) will operate with higher efficiency, achieve higher growth
and execute better control over their business. Their business success through
innovative technology adoption will significantly contribute to the sustained economic
vibrancy and growth of Hong Kong.
Within the programme supporting this strategic thrust, the key initiatives that offer new
and exciting opportunities include:
•
Establishing innovation and collaboration platforms putting Hong Kong at the
forefront of innovative business applications of technology, boosting its competitive
edge
•
Promote SME cloud platform and ICT knowledge sharing
•
Opening up innovation by making all public sector information available for use in
apps by private and non-government sector
8.3.1. Establishing innovation and collaboration platforms to accelerate
innovative business applications of technology to boost Hong
Kong’s competitive edge
Current position in Hong Kong
Experience from advanced economies has shown that innovation performance is a
crucial determinant of competitiveness and economic progress. Recent study by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) emphasised that it
is the application of advances in technology, in conjunction with entrepreneurship and
innovative delivery of goods and services, which translates scientific and technological
advances into productive economic activity. 46 Hong Kong is a leading knowledgebased economy and therefore innovation can be a growth driver for Hong Kong’s longterm economic future.
Research and Development (R&D) spending is one of the many factors in determining
the level of innovation of a country or city. R&D expenditure in Hong Kong is not high
(see the table below) because of the lack of private sector participation. In this regard,
Hong Kong could be more proactive.
46
Reference: OECD, “Innovation and Growth Rationale for an Innovation Strategy”.
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Table 5 R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP
Country
R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP 47, 48, 49
Hong Kong
0.76%
United States
2.77%
United Kingdom
1.77%
South Korea
3.74%
Singapore
2.28%
Despite the challenges in nurturing innovation, there are signs that Hong Kong is
improving. A significant portion of Hong Kong’s innovation happens in the higher
education sector. Our universities are now building a good reputation in research, and
are making larger investment in innovation. Expenditure on R&D in the Hong Kong
higher education sector has been rising in recent years. In 2011, expenditure on R&D
in the higher education sector reached HK$7,155 million, up by 3% when compared
with 2010 50. They present opportunities for driving innovation development in Hong
Kong.
As our universities are making advancement, we should more effectively leverage their
strengths. The QS World University Rankings 2012/13 reported for the first time that
four universities in Hong Kong are ranked among the world’s top 100. 51 All of them
have Engineering Faculties with cutting-edge ICT research. Their strengths can be
more extensively utilised to benefit Hong Kong’s economy.
47
"National Survey of R&D in Singapore 2011",
http://www.a-star.edu.sg/Portals/0/media/RnD_Survey/RnD_2011.pdf
48
OECD Library, http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/science-and-technology/gross-domestic-expenditure-on-r-d_2075843xtable1
49
http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr11-12/english/panels/ci/papers/ci0417cb1-1760-1-e.pdf
50
Reference: Census and Statistics Department, “Hong Kong Innovation Activities 2011”
51
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong
Kong, and City University of Hong Kong
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Potential or new possibilities
An important recent development is the
expansion of knowledge transfer from
universities to the commercial sector.
Since 2009, the Government has
provided a new recurrent funding of $50
million each year for institutions to build
up their capacity and broaden their
endeavour in knowledge transfer.
Universities are now conducting more
patent filings, spin-off companies, proofof-concept production, etc. We can
further support their capability building in
these areas.
Another major trend is the growth in
private sector innovation (see the graph
below). Our consultation findings
revealed that innovators and
entrepreneurs in Hong Kong are
developing new technologies, as well as
creating new business models and
management techniques supported by
ICT. With growing investment from the
private sector, many business
practitioners foresee that non-technical
innovation will form a strong momentum
in Hong Kong in the near future.
International experience and benefits
The US has an exceptionally strong public
and private university research base,
supported through federal agencies like
the National Science Foundation and the
Department of Defence. American
universities have strong links to the private
sector and they serve as a bridge to
commercialisation. Leading institutions
such as Stanford University,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) and California Institute of
Technology (Caltech) are the largest
grantees of Federal research funding.
They led the development of many
technological innovations that were
subsequently commercialised with
significant economic benefits. The US is
highly successful in incentivising
universities to commercialise innovations
through granting universities and
researchers the ownership of all
intellectual property rights that arise from
federally-funded research projects. This
encourages US institutions to invest in
their technology transfer and exploitation
capability.
Hong Kong needs to catch up with its
regional competitors in terms of
innovation capacity. The advancement
in university R&D capability and technology transfer, and the growing investment from
the private sector should be leveraged to drive economic development.
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Figure 24 Private sector R&D spending
(in m illion HKD)
6,500
6,194
6,000
5,767
5,474
5,500
5,000
4,500
2009
2010
2011
Reference: Census and Statistics Department, “Hong Kong Innovation Activities 2011”
Recommendations
Hong Kong is recommended to encourage innovation by strengthening technology
transfer and driving business innovation excellence. This will put Hong Kong at the
forefront of innovative business applications of technology. The benefits are:

Innovative ideas and research outputs from universities will be more effectively
translated into economic benefits.

More innovative solutions will be applied to businesses to raise their
competitiveness.

Hong Kong will more effectively attract innovation talents from other parts of the
world to enrich its talent pool.
Potential areas of action
1. Strengthen technology transfer from universities – The awareness of the
importance of technology transfer programmes can be further developed.
Academics and the Government should further promote the availability of such
knowledge assets to the industries and potential investors (e.g. organising
symposiums and other high-profile events). In addition, the University Grants
Committee and the Innovation and Technology Commission should further
encourage and facilitate institutions to explore and exploit such knowledge, knowhow, skills and expertise and subsequent transfer of such tacit but highly valuable
assets to society and economy including private sector companies.
2. Drive business excellence with a broader definition of innovation – Hong
Kong should further encourage and recognise product and service excellence
through ICT. Academics, ICT industry players, private investors and public funding
bodies need to advocate and adopt a broader definition of innovation, which could
include the creation of new management techniques, business models and
business operations design. More entrepreneurs engaging in innovative business
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with ICT elements could be included in certain innovation funding support. This
could potentially trigger more business-driven ideas and technology applications. It
is noted that the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) has supported some
business-driven R&D application projects in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Applied
Science and Technology Research Institute and the Hong Kong R&D Centre for
Logistics and Supply Chain Management also contribute to business innovation
development. These efforts should be expanded into larger scale.
8.3.2. Promoting cloud platforms and knowledge sharing for small and
medium enterprises to help them succeed through increased
leveraging of technology
Current position in Hong Kong
A significant portion of Hong Kong’s businesses is made up of small and medium
enterprises (SMEs). 52 According to the Trade and Industry Department, as of
December 2012, there were about 300,000 SMEs in Hong Kong. They accounted for
over 98% of the total business units and provided job opportunities to over 1.2 million
persons, representing about 47% of total employment 53. Their business success and
vibrancy is critical to the overall economic success of Hong Kong.
A recent detailed study into SMEs’ ICT adoption revealed that ICT adoption could lead
to more successful business 54. It concluded that there was a significant direct
relationship between revenue and stage of ICT usage, with a higher ICT usage driving
higher revenue.
The study also suggested that the lack of understanding of ICT could be a potential
deterrent to ICT adoption. It was concluded that an important reason for SMEs not
adopting ICT appears to be the perception that they do not need it. They feel that they
have managed well without the technology so far, and see no need to make an
investment that would be difficult and expensive to maintain.
Despite the challenges facing SMEs in ICT adoption, some progress has been made.
Over the years, the Government and the ICT industry have joined hands to facilitate
the wider adoption of ICT among SMEs.Through the OGCIO's Sector-specific
Programme and IT Training Programme for SMEs, 22 projects for 16 business sectors
were conducted to benefit over 17,000 practitioners from SMEs as of May 2013. 55 The
52
Definition of SME adopted by the Trade and Industry Department: Manufacturing enterprises with fewer than 100
employees and non-manufacturing enterprises with fewer than 50 employees are regarded as small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong.
53
Reference: Trade and Industry Department,
http://www.success.tid.gov.hk/english/lin_sup_org/gov_dep/service_detail_6863.html
54
Prof. Ali Farhoomand, Director of HKU Asia Case Research Centre, published the research “Study on ICT Adoption in
Hong Kong SMEs”.
55
Reference: Figures provided by OGCIO
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Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC)
has set up a new one-stop support
centre, SME One, to offer a variety of
SME support services. The Hong Kong
Trade Development Council (HKTDC)
has set up the SME Centre to provide
solid business contacts, up-to-date
business information on overseas
markets, and latest industry trends to
SMEs. These initiatives will continue to
enhance SMEs’ competitiveness.
International experience and benefits
The New York City government has been
active in supporting SMEs through training
and workshops. The Mayor’s Office of
Small Business Services (SBS) introduced
the Digital Toolkit, a new programme to
equip SMEs with the tools and training
they need to grow online. Through NYC
Business Solutions Centres, the Digital
Toolkit programme leverages partnerships
with technology companies throughout the
City to develop a “how-to” curriculum.
Workshops led by NYC business solutions
instructors are available online. This
provides business owners with the training
and resources they need to grow in a
modern economy. They become more ICT
enabled, and are able to run their business
more efficiently and achieve more growth.
In addition to the effort required for the
ongoing SME facilitation programmes
mentioned above, emerging needs and
opportunities on cloud-based
applications and services for businesses,
including SMEs, are also observed. A
survey 56 has revealed that an increasing
percentage of businesses are adopting
cloud applications (up from 27.3% in
2011 to 33.0% in 2012). Over 58% of
respondents agreed that cloud applications can reduce initial investment and capital
expense on IT, and over 53% of respondents agreed that they would not have to worry
about IT maintenance or upgrade using cloud applications. These results suggest that
businesses have become more aware of the advantages of cloud computing, and will
be more active in adopting the applications and services.
Potential and new possibilities
While OGCIO, HKPC, HKTDC and other public/ industry bodies will continue their
existing efforts in supporting SMEs, we should leverage the technology and business
breakthroughs that can potentially transform the SME sector. A highly practical and
applicable breakthrough for SMEs is the emergence of cloud computing solutions.
Cloud computing solutions allow ICT users to operate with minimal upfront investment
cost. Recurrent service cost is low. The requirement on technical skills / ICT staff for
maintenance is also low. Therefore SMEs can adopt ICT with minimal barrier. They will
become more willing and active in adopting innovative ICT solutions to support their
business.
Recommendation
The Government is recommended to work with the private sector to facilitate the
provision of cloud platforms specifically for SMEs. To supplement the cloud platform,
the Government will actively promote knowledge sharing for SMEs to succeed through
technology. The benefits are:
56
Reference: Hong Kong Productivity Council “Hong Kong Cloud End-User Survey”
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
Giving SMEs the incentives to use cloud computing services provided on trusted
and reliable cloud platforms

Enabling faster adoption of innovative technology applications by SMEs to improve
business performance

Enabling the development of more innovative business and technology solutions for
the SME market segment.
Potential areas of action
1. Promote SME cloud platform – The Government can work with the private sector
to facilitate the provision of cloud platforms specifically for SMEs. Such platforms
will provide business opportunities to software and solution providers and also
encourage SMEs to adopt ICT to enhance productivity and increase
competitiveness.
2. Encourage collaborative information sharing on business and technology
innovation for SMEs – Success stories of SMEs adopting ICT will be used for
changing the risk perception and operational considerations of business owners
about ICT. Awards could be given to the most successful cases to gain publicity.
8.3.3. Accelerating innovation by making all public sector information
available for use by private and other non-government sectors
Current position in Hong Kong
Public Sector Information (PSI) is the information produced, collected and
disseminated by the Government or public bodies. Hong Kong Government has
launched a PSI portal called Data.One in 2011, providing PSI data download free of
charge. It started off with geo-referenced public facility data and road traffic information,
and expanded into other PSI areas (including air pollution indices, property market
statistics, population census statistics, weather data, public transport information etc.)
The portal now has 12 categories of PSI encompassing hundreds of datasets for both
commercial and non-commercial re-use.
The most commonly downloaded and re-used PSI is traffic snapshot images. At least
13 mobile applications making use of the traffic snapshot images have been rolled-out,
and the number of downloads of these images reached 700,000 times a day. The
snapshot data informs the citizens on the real-time traffic situation and thus optimise
their routing to work, school or home. This illustrates that opening up and providing
easy access to public data can enable citizens, communities and businesses to
become more innovative and help deliver socio-economic benefits.
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Figure 25 Apps development competition based on PSI could enable innovation
Potential and new possibilities
Experience from other developed economies shows that widening access to public
data can create tangible business opportunities. Public bodies can help to unlock the
full potential of data and engage citizens and entrepreneurs in innovative ways, helping
to boost social innovation.
Public data open to the public will enable citizens to demand public bodies to delivery
better value for money in public spending; and to realise significant economic benefits
by enabling businesses and non-profit organisations to build innovative applications
and websites using public data.
Recommendation
We propose to make all PSI datasets
available so that both private and nongovernment sectors can re-use the data
with innovation, especially in forms of
mobile apps, to deliver direct benefits to
the society as a whole. The benefits are:
International experience and benefits
In the US, hygiene records of restaurants
in some cities are open for downloading.
Mobile apps have been developed based
on the open data to provide information on
eatery and dinning places. The information
is combined with customer ratings as a
restaurant guide for the citizens.
Making innovative use of the hygiene
related open data, the apps have delivered
an unexpected benefit. The rate of health
incidents related to poor hygiene / food
poisoning has dropped. This is an example
of how open data can benefit the public.

Creating business opportunities for
economic growth in a cost-effective
and creative way

Benefiting private and nongovernment sector by gaining more
precise and complete insight into
customers’ preferences and needs

Leveraging on community wisdom to
deliver convenience to citizens through developing applications with open data for
citizens’ daily use
Potential areas of action
1. Make PSI electronically available in machine readable format for easy re-use
as default – The Government should make the availability of PSI a default rather
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than an exception. In general, public data that is not subject to privacy, security or
privilege limitations should be made available. PSI datasets could be released in
machine-readable formats in parallel to their usual document formats (such as
“.pdf”, “.doc”, etc.). The Government should set up guidelines to Government
departments and public bodies on the development of application programming
interfaces (APIs). A single portal with access to all Government bodies’ APIs could
be established to facilitate data access by users.
2. Encourage other public organisations to release PSI – The Government should
not only seek to make available more PSI from Government departments but
should also work with other public organisations and sectors to encourage release
of more information for the benefit of the Hong Kong community as a whole (e.g.
release of data by organisations in the utilities and transportation sectors).
3. Prioritise the provision of PSI for high value-added services – To develop
impactful and high value services, critical data sets need to be released and
combined with innovative services. If the base maps could be opened for public use
at minimal cost, or free-of-charge, developers would be further encouraged to
leverage the base maps to design innovative location-based applications. This
could also potentially add to the strengths of Hong Kong as a hub for mobile
applications. Experience from some advanced economies suggests that the
provision of location or map based information by public bodies free-of-charge
could be a practical option 57,58. The Government could further explore whether the
base map data could be downloaded through APIs such that they are made easier
to use by developers.
8.4 Supporting a thriving Hong Kong ICT Industry and
research and development
Successful ICT development and application is a critical success factor to many
leading knowledge-based economies around the globe. Hong Kong is certainly no
exception. In order to stay ahead, Hong Kong needs to develop a vibrant ICT industry
for development and continue its journey through innovative application of ICT in all
industries. In the longer term, the ICT industry aspires to become one of Hong Kong’s
pillar industries. It will fuel the economic growth of Hong Kong and become our key
competitive edge to stay ahead in the global economic competition.
Within the programme supporting this strategic thrust, the key initiatives that offer new
and exciting opportunities include:
•
Supporting the evolving ecosystem to groom technology startups
•
Growing top talent in ICT and business technology application
•
Establishing Hong Kong as a Mobile Centre of Excellence
57
EuroGeographics (http://www.eurogeographics.org/products-and-services/euroglobalmap) offers free base maps. The
maps are available at the provincial level.
58
Singapore also offers location based information on Data.gov.sg. Though it is not offering sophisticated or high valueadded data services, the information is readily accessible with no extra cost.
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•
Continuing to develop a Cloud Computing and Data Centre hub
•
Exploiting convergence to combine Hong Hong’s strengths in media, creative and
technology industries to make the city a Centre of Excellence in Digital Media
•
Continuing to leverage Hong Kong’s unique position by enabling ICT businesses to
access Mainland opportunities.
8.4.1. Supporting the evolving ecosystem to groom technology startups
Current position in Hong Kong
Traditionally, the ICT industry has a supporting and enabler role in Hong Kong in that it
mainly assists the development of other industries. Its size is relatively small. The
percentage of GDP generated by ICT is approximately 6.1%. 59 It employs 78,000
professionals 60, which constitute roughly only 2% of the total labour force. 61
Figure 26 Percentage of GDP generated by ICT
7%
6.10%
6%
5%
4%
5.4%
4.9%
3.6%
4.4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Reference: Census and Statistics Department, “Annual Report: Hong Kong as an Information Society”.
Based on the lessons learnt from leading economies, a vibrant ICT industry should
comprise a large base of successful ICT startups. 62, 63 They excel at generating,
protecting, applying and commercialising innovative ideas. They first capture business
from a local market, and then expand into the international market and become
59
Reference: Census and Statistics Department, “Hong Kong as an Information Society (2013 edition)”.
60
Reference: 2012 VTC Manpower Survey Report
61
The size of the total Hong Kong labour force in 2010 was 3.65 million. (Hong Kong: The Facts – Employment,
http://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/factsheets/docs/employment.pdf)
62
Reference: OECD, “Innovation and Growth - Rationale for and Innovation Strategy”.
63
Reference: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills of the UK Government “Innovation and Research Strategy
for Growth”.
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successful enterprises. The fundamentals of this industry development process lie in
an ecosystem that favours ICT startup development.
A sustaining ecosystem for ICT startups relies on a spectrum of interacting factors.
They include the generation of new ideas, availability of skills and talents, accessibility
to funding, protection of intellectual property (IP) rights, and a favourable business
environment.
Hong Kong has invested substantially in each of these areas. For example, the
Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) approved $7,414 millions of funding for 3,297
projects 64 since its establishment. The Cyberport Incubation Programme has supported
189 companies since 2005. They receive seed funding, facility support and technology
guidance. The supported companies developed 103 IP items and attracted over $55
million from angel investment funds. The Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks
(HKSTP) operates the Business Incubation Programme. It provides technology
startups with subsidised rent and marketing/ finance/ management services in the
incubatees’ critical initial years. A total of 493 companies have been admitted. 70% of
the graduated companies are still in operation. They have filed over 600 IP
registrations. Four companies are listed either in Hong Kong or the US.
Besides the accomplishments by the public bodies, we have also observed significant
development in the private sector. In recent years, a burgeoning population of ICT
startups begins to emerge in co-working spaces. A prominent example is CoCoon. It is
positioned as an eco-friendly and open co-working space which houses and connects
entrepreneurs, innovators, designers, engineers and investors. Entrepreneurs who
have a business idea can find co-founders in the CoCoon network and build a team.
They start by earning seed money through paid projects. Eventually they will locate the
right investors who fund their ideas. CoCoon also organise pitch nights and online
market space to catalyse the business creation and growth process. Other similar
initiatives are seen in Hong Kong, such as The Hive Co-working space, and the
BootHK Campus. They offer similar functions that support entrepreneurs, technologists
and investors. Their emergence and success has now become a new driving force for
the ICT startup sector.
We also observed that Hong Kong has become more widely recognised as a potential
hub for technology development and business application. In a recent report published
by Forbes 65, Hong Kong was named the top city of “The World's Top 4 Tech Capitals
to Watch (after Silicon Valley and New York)”. It was noted that, with a community of
innovative and ambitious entrepreneurs on one side and a population of internationally
travelled, wealthy tycoons on the other, Hong Kong faces good opportunities to
become a leading technology centre.
Despite the progress made, challenges still exist in the ecosystem development. One
consensus derived from our consultation sessions is the difficulty in soliciting funding
for innovative business ideas. Respondents were of the view that the ITF tended to
focus on technology innovation. Business ideas that apply existing technologies would
64
Source: Information and Technology Commission, “Innovation and Technology Fund Statistics of Approved Projects”
(as at 30 April 2013)”
65
Reference: Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2013/03/20/the-worlds-top-4-tech-capitals-to-watchafter-silicon-valley-and-new-york/2/
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receive less support because they lack elements of new technology invention. This
could potentially hinder the establishment of ICT startups that emphasise new business
ideas rather than technology.
Some of the other difficulties facing entrepreneurs include: soliciting investments,
receiving mentorship, obtaining legal guidance, and the transparency of startup-related
information.
Another challenging aspect is the immigration requirements to non-local entrepreneurs.
Most of them cannot apply for a working visa, and many may not be qualified for the
Capital Investment Entrant Scheme. This is a deterrent to non-local startups.
Potential or new possibilities
The burgeoning co-working spaces for
entrepreneurs demonstrate that
matching and network building is an
essential part of a startup ecosystem.
The existence of segregated individual
elements (capital, ideas, talents, etc.)
would not lead to business vibrancy.
These elements have to be brought
together in an interconnected platform
to achieve synergy. Since Hong Kong is
a highly connected city, with good
network infrastructure and high mobile
adoption rate, online platforms that
connect people, idea, technology and
capital will substantially enhance the
ICT startup ecosystem.
It is widely recognised that IP rights is a
core element of ICT business. Having a
renowned legal system, ICT companies
can benefit from Hong Kong’s natural
advantages in IP rights protection.
International experience and benefits
South Korea set up the Small and Medium
Business Administration (SMBA) in 1996.
Its policy concept has been directed
towards competitive SMEs, and away from
protection of the weak. It adopts a more
direct approach to grow small and midsized businesses into national champions.
The ‘300 Global Stars’ Programme was
launched in 2010. Every year during the
three year period starting in 2010, 100 SME
candidates are selected on the basis of
merit. The selected enterprises are
supported by a comprehensive support
package in terms of technology, financing,
marketing, etc. With a wide range of
support offered by the programme, the
companies are made ready to compete with
international competitors. 66
ICT startups are the breeding ground of creative technological ideas and innovative
products and more startups should be grown and developed into champions. They are
vital to the overall ICT development in Hong Kong. The development of platforms for
business matching and showcasing of products, and the transparency of startuprelated information, can largely accelerate the building of such ecosystem.
Recommendations
Hong Kong is recommended to build and enhance the ecosystem to grow ICT startups
and groom them into successful enterprises. The benefits are:
66
Reference: INNO-Grips, Global Review of Innovation Policy Studies “Korea: Shifting SME policies towards
competitiveness and growth”.
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
Hong Kong’s ICT industry will expand and become highly vibrant. It will add
economic diversity and strength to Hong Kong.

ICT startups and champions will brings together a large and fluid community of
entrepreneurs and technologists for further economic development and expansion.

A successful ecosystem will facilitate ICT startups to enter business

More high-value ICT jobs will be created.
Potential areas of action
1. Build a digital platform for technology startups – An open, easy to access and
user friendly online platform will be established to increase transparency of
information and facilitate the entry of startups to the market. It facilitates the
communication and matching between innovators, investors, mentors and business
advisors, etc. It will become a digital market place for ideas, skills, talents, business
knowledge and funding. It will also link up the online community with the physical
communities in co-working spaces, Cyberport, HKSTP, and universities. Eventually
the successful startups will emerge as successful enterprises.
2. Facilitate startups to foster entrepreneurial culture and encourage crossfertilisation of ideas – Non-local startups should be facilitated to set up their
businesses to Hong Kong in order to broaden the horizon of the local technology
startup scene. It is envisaged that interactions between local and overseas
elements would further boost Hong Kong's entrepreneurial culture.
8.4.2. Growing top talent in ICT and business technology application
Current position in Hong Kong
Hong Kong has a mature education system that can nurture talents for ICT industry
development. Our universities are the major source of young talents for the industry. In
the last decade, the Government has invested substantially in ICT education and talent
development. Currently, six local universities are funded by the University Grants
Committee to provide degree programme education in ICT-related disciplines. The
number of students admitted to bachelor, master and doctoral degree programmes in
local universities have increased significantly over the past decade. 67 Students in these
programmes are provided with high-quality education. Many of the local lecturers are
renowned ICT experts, with increasing numbers of Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) fellows and international award-winning academics.
Students also have access to cutting-edge R&D facilities, including the outstanding
laboratories funded by the Research Grants Council. Hong Kong’s education system
on ICT could be considered top of its class in the region.
Despite the effort and progress made in ICT education, enterprises still find a gap
between the demand and supply of ICT talent. On the one hand, the competition of
talent is happening as early as at the university level, where students may pursue
67
The 2012 ICT Manpower Survey conducted by Vocational Training Council revealed that 87.3% of fresh IT firstdegree graduates were in full-time employment. The successful participation in IT related jobs was 77.1%.
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studies in finance, law or medicine rather than information and computer science, or
engineering because of the public image of the ICT profession and the career prospect.
On the other hand, the skills possessed by the ICT graduates may not fully match the
requirements in the industries (e.g. strategic thinking, business analysis, project
management, stakeholder management) to cope with the rapidly changing IT
landscape and technologies.
Figure 27 IT manpower supply-demand analysis
Local supply of IT graduates*
8000
90000
78685
Total number of IT employees in HK
Number of IT telents on demand/supply
7000
6000
80000
73378
66697
64473
70000
5694
60000
5000
4741
4000
4736
4434
4390
50000
3742
40000
3359
3035
3000
30000
2000
Total number of IT employees in Hong Kong
Additional demand for IT telents
20000
2006
2008
2010
2012
* The supply data do not include IT or computing graduates returning from overseas and non-IT / computing graduates having received in-depth
conversion IT training.
Reference: The Vocational Training Council, “Manpower Survey of the IT Sector of 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012”.
The 2012 ICT Manpower Survey revealed that 38.9% of employers had difficulties in
attracting suitable candidates with the relevant experience during their recruitment
exercises. The difficulty of ICT employers in recruiting candidates with the relevant
experience suggest that the problem may lie in the quality of the ICT workforce, though
it may also be due to the rapid change in technologies. The consultation with Hong
Kong’s major ICT industry bodies, local and multinational ICT vendors and service
providers, and Chief Information Officers indicates that the younger generation of ICT
professionals may not be skilled enough to match market demand. The skills gaps
include technical competence (such as programming skills) and business knowledge
(such as business analysis and project management). Qualification framework on ICT
now exists (the Specification of Competency Standards on “Software Products and
Software Services” and “Communication and Information Services”), but many
stakeholders view that it does not fully reflect market needs (such as skills in data
analytics, business process analysis and cloud-based services) and it is not widely
adopted and recognised. These challenges certainly pose threats to the future
development of the ICT industry, as well as the broader implications to industries that
heavily rely on strong ICT capabilities.
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Potential or new possibilities
Experience from leading ICT companies
suggests that innovation and value
creation usually take place at the
interaction between business and
technology. As a leading business hub,
Hong Kong has advantages in bringing
in market insights into education
curriculum. Experience from leading
institutes, such as MIT, has proven that
universities and the industry will have
mutual benefits through educational
collaboration.
In particular, we will address the needs
on different types of ICT knowledge. ICT
literacy is the foundational level which
will benefit everyone in society.
ICT technical knowledge (such as
programming skills) is a key requirement
for ICT companies and ICT departments
in
corporates.
Understanding
of
technology application for business is a
key requirement for most business
professionals. ICT related programmes
in universities can incorporate more
industry elements in the education
process to ensure success in building
our ICT human capital.
International experience and benefits
Singapore has established the National
Infocomm Competency Framework (NICF).
The framework states the competency
requirements for ICT professionals. It aims
at widening and deepening the capabilities
of Singapore’s ICT workforce and guiding
their career development and progression.
The framework covers a large range of job
roles related to ICT security, data centre
management, channels management,
quality assurance and portfolio
management. The framework would also
be continually updated to cover emerging
technologies including cloud computing
and green ICT.
In addition, Continuing Education Training
(CET) centres are established in
Singapore. They provide courses that
cover the framework capabilities. It would
train up to 10,000 ICT professionals in 5
years.
Singapore’s initiatives help it attract and
grow ICT talents for high-quality jobs. They
form a strong workforce to develop
innovative ICT businesses. Recently,
Singapore is ranked 7th in the world in
Bloomberg's Global Innovation Index. Its
researcher concentration is ranked 4th in
the world. This suggests that its talent
policy is moving in the right direction.
Despite the investment in education and
progress made in the past, Hong Kong
still faces the challenge of having
shortage in ICT talents who can meet
the skills demand of the industry. Hong
Kong should enrich its ICT talent pool and further improve ICT education to bridge the
gap.
Recommendations
The Government is recommended to continue fostering partnerships among academia,
training organisations, professional bodies, employers and employees for the
sustainable development of ICT manpower for Hong Kong. It is recommended to
develop an ICT professional recognition framework, which can accommodate different
professional qualifications and various existing framework. The ICT professional
recognition framework would comprise of a combination of assessment criteria such as
examination, experience, and skills competency. The framework would also make
reference to internationally recognised benchmarks/standards which are important to
the development of ICT profession. In addition, ICT will be promoted as an attractive
career. The professional image will be enhanced. The benefits are:
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
Employers, including ICT vendors/
service providers and the ICT
divisions of corporates, will easily
source talents locally to grow their
business.

The enhancement of professional
image and establishment / adoption
of professional recognition
framework will benefit not only local
talents, but also talents from the
Mainland and other parts of the world.
This will place Hong Kong at an
advantaged position to source and
attract Mainland and international
talents. Hong Kong will therefore
become an ICT talent hub, which will
strongly favour our ICT industry
development.

Some of the talents will become
entrepreneurs. They will establish
ICT-based startups in Hong Kong.
This will contribute to the
development of Hong Kong as an
innovation hub and its digital
economy.
Potential areas of action
International experience and benefits
MIT is a world leading educational and
research institute. In the ICT sector, it has
nurtured thousands of top talents who
succeed in innovation and business
development. As a core of its advanced
education, it developed “Industry Alliance”
with leading corporates. For example, it
formed partnership with Microsoft for the
“Project I-Campus” education programme.
It also formed partnership with HewlettPackard for collaborative study into
architectures, devices, and user interfaces
in information-rich environments. These
efforts put MIT at a leading position to
drive innovation for the industry, and help it
grows the best talents who are fit for ICT
businesses.
International experience and benefits
In the US, the IEEE Computer Society
established the Certified Software
Development Professional (CSDP)
examination for mid-level software
engineers. It also established the Certified
Software Development Associate (CSDA)
for entry-level software engineers. These
examinations and mechanisms for
software engineering credentials contribute
to building a strong software technology
talent pools in the US. The schemes allow
employers to more easily assess the
quality of candidates, and allow young
talents to develop their skills along a clear
path of career progression.
1.
Develop ICT professional
recognition framework – The
required skills and capabilities for
various levels and types of ICT
professionals will be clearly
described in a new professional
recognition framework. This
framework will become an industry
standard for the practitioners.
Based on the professional
recognition framework, Based on the framework, a new professional recognition
and registration scheme (based on the initiative under the Task Force on ICT
Professional Development and Recognition) will further enhance the
professionalism of the industry.
2.
Enhance training with industry collaboration – ICT education programmes will
be co-designed and co-delivered by leading ICT companies and the academia.
The numbers of internship and placement opportunities for ICT students will be
increased.
3.
Enhance ICT professional image – The Government and industry should
enhance the public image of ICT professionals and showcase successful ICT role-
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model to the younger generation. This will increase the proportion of top-rated
students admitted to ICT-related programmes in universities.
8.4.3. Establishing Hong Kong as a Centre of Excellence for MultiPlatform Apps
Current position in Hong Kong
Mobile business in Hong Kong is active. The mobile penetration rate is reaching 230%.
Hong Kong consumers are at the forefront of global smartphone usage.
Figure 28 Number of 3G/4G customers in Hong Kong
10,000,000
9,380,230
7,416,909
8,000,000
5,254,513
6,000,000
3,819,186
4,000,000
2,812,002
2,000,000
0
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Reference: Office of Communications Authority, “Key Statistics for Telecommunications in Hong Kong”
http://www.ofca.gov.hk/filemanager/ofca/en/content_108/wireless_en.pdf
Success cases in Internet and mobile business have been recently observed in Hong
Kong. For example, 9GAG.com was founded by five young local entrepreneurs in 2008.
It became highly popular on iOS and Android mobile device platforms, attracting over
100 million page-reads per month. Its success has attracted over 20 million dollars of
investment from Internet business investors. Another example is the success of Hong
Kong businesses in The Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA). In recent years, innovators
from Hong Kong have won APICTA awards in each competition. This shows an
increasing momentum of local innovators making ICT innovation achievement.
With these characteristics and emerging successes, the Hong Kong ICT industry can
further develop and expand. The ICT industry constitutes 6.1% of Hong Kong’s GDP in
2011 (Reference figures from some developed countries: Singapore 3.6% 68, Canada
4.9 69, USA 7.1% 70 and South Korea 11.2% 71). This suggests Hong Kong can further
68
Reference: Department of Statistics, Singapore,
http://www.singstat.gov.sg/statistics/browse_by_theme/national_accounts.html
69
Reference: Industry Canada, http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ict-tic.nsf/eng/h_it05864.html
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capture the growth opportunities in ICT, such as fostering mobile apps development to
propel the ICT industry to grow to a higher level of importance to our economy.
International experience and benefits
Potential or new possibilities
In recent years, Hong Kong’s
enterprises have begun to invest in a
variety of multi-platform business
solutions (e.g. online banking, movie
ticket purchase). This creates a strong
momentum that the ICT industry can
further expand. Combining this with the
high mobile penetration rate in Hong
Kong, and its culture of being receptive
to new technologies, Hong Kong is well
positioned to develop as a centre of
excellence for multi-platform apps.
The City of New York has launched
multiple initiates to drive mobile business
development. It launched the NYC
BigApps contest. It is a software
competition that challenges developers to
create online and mobile applications
using NYC Open Data. It launched an “App
Hub”, featuring the City’s ten official apps
and demonstrating how the apps create
value to citizens and businesses. It also
launched the NYC Generation Tech
programme in summer 2012, which
included opportunities for students to build
mobile apps, learn about the fundamentals
of entrepreneurship, participate in a
business plan competition and receive
mentorship from NYC technology firms.
This created a strong foundation for NYC
to develop mobile business. It is expected
that the growing mobile business can
significantly contribute to the vibrancy of its
knowledge-based economy
Recommendations
The Government is recommended to establish Hong Kong as a centre of excellence for
multi-platform apps. The benefits are:

Multi-platform app business development will drive ICT industry growth, and
contribute to the overall strength of Hong Kong’s digital economy.

Multi-platform business innovators will place Hong Kong at top priority for
establishing their business base. This will enhance Hong Kong’s reputation in
attracting ICT talents and investments.
70
Reference: US Department of Commerce, http://www.bea.gov/industry/gdpbyind_data.htm. The figure is calculated
from the cumulative total of "Computer and electronic products", "Information" and "Computer systems design and
related services".
71
Reference: Switzerland Global Enterprise, http://www.switzerland-ge.com/fr/filefieldprivate/files/41328/field_blog_public_files/8025
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Potential areas of action
1. Provide incentives to drive multi-platform solution development for the
underprivileged groups – For the underprivileged groups, since they are often not
the preferred customer segments, some of their needs may well be underserved. In
order to further ensure the even larger population of Hong Kong could enjoy the
convenience provided by mobile solutions and address the needs for social and
digital inclusion, a funding scheme supported by the Government is suggested to
support the development of specific applications for the underprivileged groups.
2. Facilitate experience sharing and publicise success cases – The Government
could collaborate with the ICT industry to organise conferences, seminar and
promotional events to help ICT businesses share experience and information, and
provide more networking opportunities. More competitions and awards could be set
up to showcase successful multi-platform business applications.
3. Explore and facilitate multi-platform business solutions for transactions and
payments – Hong Kong has a large and mature retail industry and there is
potential to further enhance the payment ecosystem. Specifically, SMEs could
potentially benefit from a secure multi-platform micropayment solutions to lower
their operational and transactional costs.
8.4.4. Continuing to develop a Cloud Computing and Data Centre Hub
Current position in Hong Kong
Another area that the Hong Kong ICT industry is focusing on is the development of
data centres with cloud computing services. Hong Kong is a leading business hub in
the Asia Pacific region. A large number of multinational companies in the financial,
trading and logistics sectors have established regional offices in Hong Kong. This
generates great demand for top tier data centre facilities and cloud computing services
for their businesses. Since the establishment of the Data Centre Facilitation Unit under
OGCIO, over 240 enquires or requests for support have been received. Approximately
10% of the enquiries and requests are from overseas companies. 72
Hong Kong possesses a number of strengths in data centre development. Currently a
number of international and Mainland enterprises have selected Hong Kong to set up
their high-tier data centres. Hong Kong was ranked the safest place in Asia for setting
up data centres by the Data Centre Risk Index for two consecutive years in 2011 and
2012 73. Our telecommunication infrastructure is one of the world’s most advanced. The
cost of Internet access is relatively low. We also have a highly reliable electricity power
supply. In addition, there is free flow of information in Hong Kong with no censorship on
content and adequate protection of data privacy. These factors enable Hong Kong to
develop vibrant data centre and cloud computing business.
72
Source: OGCIO
73
Reference: Data Centre Risk Index published by Cushman & Wakefield
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Potential and new possibilities
The recent development of major data centres Hong Kong has introduced opportunities
to accelerate the growth and adoption of cloud computing services. In addition, in some
of these cases, the reuse of industrial buildings for high-tier data centres has brought
economic benefits beyond the ICT industry. As such, Hong Kong is well positioned to
develop itself as a regional hub for data centres with cloud computing services in the
years to come.
Recommendations
The Government is recommended to continue to develop Hong Kong as a cloud
computing and data centre hub, making Hong Kong to be recognised as one of the
most business-friendly city for data centre with cloud computing businesses
Potential areas of action
1. Promote Hong Kong as a prime location for data centres with cloud
computing services – Hong Kong could make use of various possible channels to
present its advantages for data centre establishment. International conferences,
trade shows and other events are potential platforms to promote and strengthen
Hong Kong’s status as a prime location for data centres with cloud computing
services. Specific cost-conscious industries with high data centre demand (such as
financial services) could be the main target for cloud computing services.
2. Develop and promote cloud computing standards, best practices and
guidelines for service consumers and providers – To facilitate and drive cloud
computing adoption and deployment, Hong Kong could develop and promote
adoption and development of common services, standards and best practices on
cloud services definition, interoperability, standardisation, information security, data
privacy, services provision and management, contracting practices, service level
agreement, and any other issues and concerns for necessary attention by cloud
services consumers and providers in Hong Kong.
3. Lead by example in adopting cloud services across the Government – The
Government should implement cloud services across departments to drive industry
development and showcase successes.
8.4.5. Exploiting convergence to combine Hong Kong’s strengths in the
media, creative and technology industries to make the city a Centre
of Excellence in Digital Media
Current position in Hong Kong
Creative and media industries drive the innovation capacity and economic growth of a
city. Hong Kong’s creative and media industries include film, television, music, design,
architecture, comics and animation, games and digital entertainment, etc. and has
around 34,000 creative industry-related establishments, with more than 189,000
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practitioners engaged. The industries contribute more than $77.6 billion annually to
Hong Kong’s GDP, representing around 4.6% of the latter. 74
As an example, Hong Kong is one of the world's largest film and television content
exporters. In 2011, 56 locally produced films worth US 37 million (HKD 287 million)
were exported in the form of videotapes, DVDs and other compact discs 75.
During the start of the Internet era, the media industry and content providers scrambled
to get their content digitised and re-used in new digital channels. The industry referred
this stage as Media 2.0. However, with the explosion of mobile devices and the advent
of social media, the connected consumer era represents the end of merely repurposing
digital content. Empowered consumers demand instant access to personalised media
content, wherever they are. This is the world of Media 3.0.
Potential and new possibilities
Today’s media industry must move beyond digital to delivering experiences tailored to
the digital consumers’ personalities anytime, anywhere. 76
The connected consumer era is expecting experiences that are:
•
Seamless and integrated across
devices
•
Smart – personal, insightful, relevant
and contextual
•
Collaborative – products and
services are co-created by
developers and users
•
Social – ideas are generated,
developed and shared among social
groups on digital platforms (e.g.
social networking sites).
Technology has the capability to create
these differentiated customer
experiences.
International experience and benefits
Comcast Corporation is a leading media,
entertainment and communications
company. Comcast piloted Xcalibur, its
next generation cloud-based TV platform
that aims to revolutionise the way people
watch TV. Xcalibur moves beyond set top
boxes to leveraging cloud architecture to
deliver live TV service to any Internetconnected device. Customers can watch
live video feeds that serve mobile and
other connected devices, when and where
they want. Xcalibur meets customer
demand for easier access to TV and other
Internet-enabled content and delivers
content to a broader range of devices.
Hong Kong’s media and creative
industries need a platform to leverage
technology to create the digital media consumption experience that consumers need
from content providers in order to maintain its leading status in the world.
74
Reference: Create HK, ‘Hong Kong: The Facts (October 2012)
75
Reference: HKTDC, http://hong-kong-economy-research.hktdc.com/business-news/article/Hong-Kong-IndustryProfiles/Film-Entertainment-Industry-in-Hong-Kong/hkip/en/1/1X000000/1X0018PN.htm
76
Reference: IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV)
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Recommendations
The Government should develop Hong Kong into a Centre of Excellence in Digital
Media by uniting the media, creative and technology industries. The benefits are:
•
Strengthen Hong Kong media and creative industry; and
•
Provide more business opportunities through promoting and marketing our ICT and
media products and services to other parts of the world.
Potential areas of action
1. Enable connections and collaboration between media content providers with
ICT companies to create a cluster of digital media companies – The
Government could host events to bring together communities in the digital media
delivery value chain or encourage the media industry to invest in the necessary
digital tool (e.g. digital media studio) for new digital media companies. The goal is
to accelerate the creation of successful new digital media businesses.
2. Facilitate experience sharing and publicise success cases – The Government
could collaborate with the media, creative and ICT industries to organise
conferences, seminar and promotional events to help the digital media businesses
share experience and information, and provide more networking opportunities.
8.4.6. Continuing to leverage Hong Kong’s unique position by enabling
ICT businesses to access Mainland opportunities
Current position
Hong Kong’s economic ties with the Mainland have grown closer and more
interdependent in the last decade. Today business collaborations exist across the
border in almost every industry. Hong Kong has become the Mainland’s largest
external investor, accounting for USD 71.289 billion in 2012 (over half of the Mainland’s
foreign investment) 77. The Mainland’s vast market potential, economic growth and
active adoption of technologies introduce numerous business opportunities for Hong
Kong’s ICT industry.
77
Ministry of Commerce, People’s Republic of China,
http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/article/statistic/foreigninvestment/201301/20130100012618.shtml
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Figure 29 China ICT market size – Historical data and future forecast
(in m illion USD)
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Reference: IDC, "China ICT Spending 2012 – 2016 Forecast and Analysis".
The ICT opportunity in Mainland China is now growing rapidly. Several emerging
technologies, including IoT, Big Data analytics, cloud computing and social business
are under rapid development. China’s IoT market exceeded RMB 200 billion in 2010,
mainly covering home safety, electric power safety, public security, health monitoring,
and environmental protection. It is expected that in 2020, the market size could reach
RMB 5-10 trillion. 78 As RFID is one of the key technologies for IoT, Hong Kong’s
industry talents in RFID (e.g. experts in RFID application in our supply chain and
logistic industry) could assist the Mainland in IoT development.
The market size for big data analytics is expected to grow significantly in the years
ahead. It is expected to reach approximately RMB 4 billion in 2016. Currently big data
analytics is at an early stage of development in China. Telecommunication, banking
and healthcare sectors would likely be the fast-movers in adopting big data analytics
solutions.
The cloud computing market in China has undergone significant developments in
recent years. Telecommunications and Internet companies have led the investment in
cloud computing. Companies in the finance, manufacturing, and energy industries have
also begun adopting private cloud computing. The market size of cloud computing
services is expected to reach over RMB 11 billion in 2013, with an approximately 50%
year-to-year growth.
In the Mainland, corporate-level users are now trying to utilise the social network model
to assist and transform their internal operations, employee collaboration, process and
workflow, and knowledge management. With the world largest Internet population (over
500 million users 79), social business technologies and solutions would face an
optimistic future in the Mainland. The Chinese workforce, particularly the younger
generation, would become increasingly tech savvy users who could make better use of
social business tools to operate, manage and drive the growth of their businesses.
78
Reference: FINPRO, “Internet of Things – China”, 2011.
79
Source: International Data Base, U.S. Census Bureau
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To benefit from the vast business opportunities mentioned above, ICT businesses in
Hong Kong are now expanding into the Mainland market under The Mainland and
Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). Hong Kong service
suppliers (HKSS) are allowed to apply for qualification certification of computer
information system integration (SI Certification) and set up wholly-owned enterprises in
the Mainland to provide software implementation services and data processing
services. HKSS can also establish joint venture enterprises to provide database
services, and online data processing and transaction processing services.
Four local universities have established their industry, academic and research bases in
the High-Tech Zone of Nanshan District in Shenzhen over the past two years to
conduct R&D and collaborate with their Mainland counterparts. Over 40 joint projects
with a total funding of over $250 million have been approved for supporting R&D
collaboration between universities, research institutes and technology companies in the
two places. Their initiatives in the Mainland are likely to expand in the near future.
Potential or new possibilities
Under the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) submitted to the National People's
Congress, China would be actively developing innovation and ICT. It was planned that
the expenditure on R&D would account for 2.2% of GDP, and 3.3 patents would be
generated per 10,000 people 80.
Accordingly the plan from the Ministry of Science and Technology, technology
exchange and collaboration between the Mainland and Hong Kong would be
strengthened. Technology professionals and organisations would participate in national
technology development projects. Joint laboratories and research centres would be
established. Collaborative R&D platforms would be developed. Large-scale facilities
would be opened and shared. More science parks, incubation programmes and
industry zones would be introduced.
The planned technology initiatives are making significant progress in the Mainland.
Hong Kong ICT businesses could leverage this strong momentum and capture the
market opportunities.
Recommendations
Hong Kong should continue to leverage its unique position by enabling ICT businesses
to access Mainland opportunities.
The benefits are:

The export of ICT products and services to the Mainland market will become an
economic growth engine for Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s ICT industry will also be recognised as a key contributor to the rise in
technology and economic power of China
80
Reference: Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, 國家"十二五"科學和技術發展規劃,
http://www.most.gov.cn/kjgh/
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Potential areas of action
1.
Continue to facilitate industry collaboration across the boundary – In
addition to CEPA measures, Hong Kong should strengthen Mainland
collaboration in three key areas: cross-boundary e-commerce facilitation (e.g.
mutual recognition of electronic signature certificates), technology collaboration /
joint research projects (e.g. cloud computing services standards), and technology
transfer and exchange (e.g. co-organising conferences, forums, exhibitions).
2.
Facilitate more concerted effort in marketing and promotion of Hong
Kong’s ICT industry – The efforts by various public bodies (e.g. Hong Kong
Trade Development Council, Science Park, Cyberport, etc.) will become more
concerted and better coordinated.
8.5 Transforming and integrating public services through
technology
Over the last decade, e-Government services have evolved from providing online static
historical public information to a more citizen-centric interactive multi-media two-way
customer experience, for both citizens and businesses. New and emerging
technologies like mobile and other platforms, in particular, offer a transformational
channel for more targeted services, anytime, anywhere. At the same time, the Smarter
City provides an explosion in volumes of real-time data through intelligent sensors
which offer valuable real-time location-sensitive information that can be instantly
communicated to citizens through their mobile devices. As emerging technologies offer
opportunities to improve and transform public services, capacity building in public
sector agencies to deploy ICT effectively to support business needs will become
increasingly important.
Within the programme supporting this strategic thrust, the key initiatives that offer new
and exciting opportunities include:
•
Delivering mobile government to citizens and businesses at their fingertips – easy
access anywhere, anytime
•
Integrating and targeting services based on tailoring to individual needs
•
Establishing a Smarter City infrastructure (Internet of Things) and utilise Big Data
and other technologies to manage the thriving, growing city
8.5.1. Delivering mobile government to citizens and businesses at their
fingertips – easy access anywhere, anytime
Current position in Hong Kong
The Government has made great progress in providing online public services to
address the needs of its citizens. The one-stop portal of Government information and
e-Services, GovHK, was originally launched in 2007. In 2010, MyGovHK was
introduced, providing single-access to a personalised layer of e-Government services,
ranging from e-Tax, eRVD Bill to Registration of Outbound Travel Information.
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With the advance in mobile technology and Hong Kong’s mobile penetration at 228.4%,
in which over 64% 81 are smartphones, citizens’ behaviours have evolved and their
expectations have increased for consuming information and accessing services
through their mobile devices. Providing services through mobile channels are starting
to become de rigueur for providers in both public and private sectors. To address this
trend, the Government has been developing services with mobile as one of the optional
channels (as mentioned in Chapter 3.4).
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) identified five
stages of a connected government and its provision of e-Government services: (1)
emerging, (2) enhanced, (3) interactive, (4) transactional, and (5) connected. Using the
definition of the five stages, the Government’s strong foundation in e-Services and its
deployment of mobile e-Services positions Hong Kong near the end of stage 3, moving
into stage 4. Additional deployment and more prevalent usage of mobile e-Services will
move Hong Kong’s e-Government squarely into stage 4 – Transactional.
Figure 30 Five stages of a connected government
Reference: United Nations DESA, “e-Government Survey 2010”, 2010.
81
Figures as of February 2013 provided by Office of the Communications Authority
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Potential and new possibilities
In the past, multi-platform channels are
usually developed after traditional
channels have been successfully
implemented. Going forward, multiplatform e-Services should be positioned
not merely as an optional mode of
access but one of the mandatory
channels for all online e-Government
services. This omni-channel approach
provides an integrated, seamless
experience for citizens whether they are
accessing the e-Service online or
through their mobile devices.
International experience and benefits
South Korea provides frequently used civil
application services through smartphones.
Citizens can now view the status of their
application anytime, anywhere, saving time
as they no longer need to physically visit
Government offices. Advancements in
mobile security that encrypt data and
communication and prohibit the storage of
information address the security and
privacy concerns that citizens may have
with mobile applications.
Recommendations
Government should design and develop all online public services to be multi-platform
by default, in parallel with other non-electronic channels. This ensures citizens can
access Government services through channels that are most convenient to them.
This will move Hong Kong Government’s e-Services from United Nations DESA’s
connected government model from
stage 3 into stage 4. The benefits are:
International experience and benefits
•
Citizens will be able to be informed
and receive services with immediacy
and convenience. No longer are
citizens restricted by time or location
when they need to access public
services;
•
Transaction cost for citizens will be
lowered as they do not need to be
physically present at government premises to receive required services;
•
Government benefits by having the ability to disseminate time-sensitive information
as quickly as possible; and
•
Digital divide could be addressed as the high mobile penetration rate reflects that
citizens are relatively more comfortable in using mobile devices than traditional
electronic access.
Victoria, Australia’s The Better Health
Channel mobile app locates health
services such as doctors, dentists and
pharmacies, creates personalised health
alerts and notifications of UV, heat, smog
and pollen, and accesses to a full range of
health-related articles on the go.
Potential areas of action
1. Create multi-platform solutions for existing public services across all
Government departments, where possible – The Government should review
existing public services across all Government departments and develop a multiplatform strategy for ones that are applicable. The development of multi-platform
solutions (including mobile apps, mobile web pages, mobile transaction, etc.)
should be encouraged in all Government departments, with a set of guidelines or
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standards advised by the OGCIO. A reference example from the private sector is
the development and adoption of mobile apps for e-banking. Many leading banks in
Hong Kong have developed mobile apps for their customers. As a result, a wide
range of mobile banking services (information enquiry, financial transactions,
marketing / promotion, etc.) have become increasingly popular in Hong Kong. This
trend in the private sector could potentially be extended to the public sector for
mobile public e-services.
2. Make multi-platform by default for future e-Government services across all
Government departments – The Government should continue the effort to create
multi-platform solutions for all new e-Government services going forward.
Advanced multi-platform features like location-based services and Near Field
Communication (NFC) can be considered, where appropriate, in the e-service.
For launching future e-services, the “multi-platform by default” approach can be
considered, which means to design for multi-platform from the start. This also
implies that Government departments will need to consider how best to reach
different segments of the community as there could be divergences in the
technologies that are being used by different groups.
8.5.2. Integrating and targeting services tailoring to individual needs
Current position in Hong Kong
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines integrated
services as “joined-up social services for the benefit of service users or providers”. 82
The diagram below represents a one-stop service where citizens can secure the
support they need, across all government departments, at one place. The ability to
define exactly what the Service User outcomes for individual citizens determines the
Government departments that need to be joined up.
82
Reference: OECD, “Integrated Services and Housing Consultation”. November 2012.
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Figure 31 A basic model for integrated services delivery
Reference: OECD, “Integrated Services and Housing Consultation”. November 2012
The emergence of mobile, social, cloud, big data, and analytics have fundamentally
changed how citizens live, work and interact. These technologies reset citizens’
expectations, requiring the Government to rethink how best to deliver its services. The
ability to view a citizen holistically by synthesising all the engagement points with the
Government will help formulate the types of integrated services that meet the citizen’s
needs.
The Government has established the Interoperability Framework (IF) to allow for easier
data exchange between departments and related organisations, as well as the
development of integrated e-Government services. Shared services between
departments, e.g. human resources, financial management and procurement, have
already taken advantage of IF and were deployed for public use.
The Government has also embarked on a few major integrated services that serve this
purpose.
Electronic Information Management (EIM) – A framework for all departments to
effectively create, store, use, disseminate, retrieve and archive information so that it
can be readily available for operational use, knowledge sharing and decision support.
e-Procurement - A procurement system that enables the electronic transactions
between the Government and the suppliers for purchases of goods and nonconstruction-related services.
Government Human Resources Management Services (GovHRMS) – A suite of
shared ICT services on the cloud platform that supports HRM processes common to
agencies.
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Potential and new possibilities
While the Government has embarked on a few initiatives that allow it to better serve
the citizens, there are still areas of improvement to deliver citizen-centric services. A
framework, or blueprint, and tool that enable information sharing across Government
departments, enhance the ability to deliver effective and timely services, and improve
operational efficiencies will be needed.
Figure 32 Benefits from IT-enabled connected government
Reference: United Nations, “Enterprise Architecture as Platform for connected government”, 2010.
The Government has embarked on a few major integrated service initiatives with a
focus on citizen-centricity. Going forward, the Government should accelerate its
development of more joined-up, integrated services by further enhancing the
interoperability and efficiency between Government departments.
Recommendations
The Government should continue developing integrated citizen-centric services by
enabling a common framework and platform so that an encompassing view of the
citizens’ individual needs can be realised.
The benefits are:
•
Cross Government departments’ e-Services can easily take advantage of data that
crosses different departments and bureaux with minimal technical barrier. The
synthesisation of cross-department data ensures the development of public eServices is more targeted toward citizens’ needs.
•
Departments within the Government will operate with coherence, better business
agility and operational efficiency. With common framework and infrastructure
defined across departments, it will be less of a challenge to develop and offer
cross-departmental e-services.
•
An optimal balance between cost, efficiency, quality and security will be achieved
by adopting the most suitable common delivery platform (e.g. cloud computing) for
public e-services. This could also be recognised as a flagship showcase for Hong
Kong’s development into a leading hub for cloud computing and data centre.
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Potential areas of action
1. Develop and promote more integrated solutions for e-Government services –
The need to continue developing joined-up public services requires a standard
methodology for conducting architecture planning and implementation. A welldefined approach for integrated solutions will provides a holistic view of the entire
Government with a common language that facilitates the creation of linkages and
improves interoperability in the delivery of cross-departmental services.
A reference example could be the provision of one-stop licensing services. It is
possible that the licensing services of most Government departments, if not all, are
consolidated and provided by a single body. It would be the single focus point to
serve citizens for all licensing-related matters. Since it would be a crossdepartmental initiative that requires a high-degree of cross- departmental
cooperation and communication, a backend technology platform based on an
Enterprise Architecture Framework (EAF) would be indispensible. With an EAF, the
Government will be able to provide more electronic integrated and targeted
services such as GovHK, MyGovHK, the one-stop company registration service,
and the licensing portal for SMEs 83, etc.)
2. Encourage the use of the Government Cloud Platform (GovCloud) and shared
services by all Government departments – GovCloud is already planned for
hosting common e-Government services (e.g. EIM) due to the platform’s agile and
cost-effective service delivery model. All Government departments should continue
to leverage this computing platform, where possible, to implement future unique IT
or joined-up public service initiatives.
8.5.3. Establishing a Smarter City infrastructure through further
digitisation and Internet of Things and utilise Big Data to manage
the thriving and growing city
Current position in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is a populous modern city and has a need to manage its resources
effectively in order to improve the citizens’ quality of life. The emergence of connected
sensors embedded into everyday objects provides the intelligence to make better
informed decisions to address this need.
The Government foresaw the importance of these intelligent sensors, or Internet of
Things (IoT), and established the Hong Kong RFID Centre back in October 2008 with
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and GS1 Hong Kong. Over the
years, the technology was implemented in warehouse management, luggage handling,
trade and logistics and livestock control, among others. Since 2012, Hong Kong
International Airport (HKIA) uses RFID baggage tags on 70,000 baggages from more
83
https://www.success.tid.gov.hk/tid/eng/blics/index.jsp
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than 60 airlines a day. HKIA uses more than 26 million RFID tags each year, making it
the airport that applies RFID baggage handling system with the largest scale. 84
Hong Kong has also started the deployment of these advanced sensors in government
operations. For example, the Transport Department (TD), through deployment of
Intelligent Transport System (ITS) for better traffic management, has installed sensors
to collect real time traffic data in selected areas. These data are processed to provide
real-time traffic information to commuters through ITS applications such as Hong Kong
eRouting, Speed Map Panels, Journey Time Indication System, etc. Much of the
information can also be downloaded through the Data.One portal for free, for
development of applications by private sector. If there is increase in deployment of
advanced sensors around the city combined with location-based or other value-added
services, commuters can further benefit from having access to real-time traffic
information to better plan their journey around the city.
Through increased digitisation of Government operations through either the normal
progression of e-Government or the deployment of sensors, the volume of data
generated increases exponentially every year. It will be highly beneficial for the
Government to find ways to harness the interrelationships within the data across the
Government and turn them into insights that can be acted upon.
Potential and new possibilities
Interconnected sensors, along with Big
Data, will have an enormous impact on
how the Government operates, makes
decisions and delivers services to its
citizens. The superior value of
synthesising and analysing the volume
of data generated by these sensors can
only be realised once Government
departments have adopted the
deployment of sensors with a defined
set of standards and guidelines on how
the data should be captured and
processed.
International experience and benefits
To prevent sums as large as 285 billion
Euros, or 18% of its GDP, in tax evasion,
Italy’s Revenue Agency has started using
data analytics to compare taxpayers’
income declarations with their
expenditures to determine if an initial
enquiry and investigation are warranted.
Citizens will be given a chance to explain
any discrepancies. Statistics from five
geographically defined areas of Italy and
seven categories of expenditures are used
in this solution.
For example, the Government could
explore optimising traffic flow based on
the weather and traffic data collected
from Hong Kong Observatory and Transport Department respectively.
The Government already has significant experience in the usage of RFIDs and has
started to explore the use of more advanced sensors. The ability to capture and
synthesise all the data to gain valuable insight and tackle city-wide problems will bring
tremendous value to Hong Kong’s citizens and businesses.
84
Reference: Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LSCM) website,
http://www.lscm.hk/eng/channel.php?channel=press-release, 3 April 2012.
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In addition, the Government should continue to explore other innovative ways to use
ICT to drive operational efficiency, environmental sustainability, and cost savings.
For example, the Government could continue to identify areas where digitisation of
documents (i.e. paperless solutions) or building information modelling will realise
additional efficiency and savings.
Recommendations
We propose the Government to establish a Smarter City infrastructure (Internet of
Things) and explore the use of Big Data and other productive technologies to manage
this thriving, growing city. The benefits include:
•
Both citizens and the Government can make better informed decisions with factbased reasoning
•
Government will be able to anticipate
problems across all Government
departments and coordinate
resources effectively
International experience and benefits
The Rio de Janeiro Intelligent Operation
Centre (IOC) monitors multiple data feeds
for weather, traffic, police, and medical
services on a real-time basis and
anticipates any looming problems. It then
puts defences in place to diminish the
impact from the approaching problems.
Besides emergencies, it coordinates the
activities of more than 30 municipal and
state departments plus private utility and
transportation companies to integrate all of
the functions of a city in a single, holistic
digital command-and-control system.
•
Government will be able to
showcase how IoT can be
implemented effectively and how the
technology can enable efficient
government operations to encourage
further participation by other
Government departments and the
private sector
•
Government can derive data insights
to identity future trends and citizens’
needs to formulate citizen-centric
policies and services
•
Government will be able to reduce the volume of manual tasks and paper-based
transactions, leading to a decrease in potential errors
•
More convenience to citizens including the optimisation of traffic in Hong Kong
•
More environmentally friendly and sustainable city.
Potential areas of action
1. Promote the deployment of sensing or IoT devices – In order to gain
meaningful insight into all aspects of the City’s activities, the collection of data from
sensing devices across all Government departments will be needed. Every
Government department should be encouraged to deploy sensors where possible
in order to capture the data required for further analysis. To accelerate the adoption
and deployment of IoT devices, the Government could consider deploying IoT
devices with Government departments that have an immediate need first. For
example, IoT can be used to optimise traffic in Hong Kong. It is also noted that the
large-scale implementation of IoT in the near future will require substantial
investment from the Government. Therefore Government departments will be
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encouraged to study, deploy and pilot-test IoT solutions with more cost-effective
approaches. Small-scale deployment or trial solutions which are less costly can be
experimented and implemented in the early / interim stages. As eventually the
solutions become more mature with lower average cost, large-scale IoT
implementation will take place.
2. Encourage data sharing between Government departments – Through the
proliferation of sensing devices installed by various Government departments, a
great deal of data will be generated. Therefore, it is important for the data to be
readily available across the Government so that it can be synthesised to address
different issues and challenges facing the City. The Government can consider
exploring the possibility of adopting big data analytics on a few focus areas, such
as transport and weather related data. It should also be noted that the sets of data
to be shared among Government departments need to be qualified to exclude
sensitive or personal data, which is protected under the Personal Data (Privacy)
Ordinance.
3. Explore and encourage further productive use of ICT – The use of ICT and
digitisation technologies are pervasive and can be further exploited in many
different areas. Government departments should continue to be encouraged to
explore other innovative uses of ICT to realise the benefits from operational
efficiency, cost savings and other social-economic benefits. For example, further
usage of paperless solutions in paper-intensive departments or functions or
building information modelling (BIM) across all Government departments would
help minimise errors that stem from manual administrative tasks, improve
operational efficiency and promote environmental sustainability.
4. Promulgate standards, approach and guidelines for Big Data across
Government departments – In order to gain the insight and value promised by Big
Data, the Government needs to understand and decide on the standards, approach
and guidelines to adopt. The Open Data Foundation, National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST), The Cloud Security Alliance, Apache Software
Foundation, and OASIS are organisations who are driving the Big Data
standardisation process while TechAmerica Foundation’s Demystifying Big Data
(http://www-304.ibm.com/industries/publicsector/fileserve?contentid=239170)
outlines the technology, policies and roadmaps that will need to be considered to
exploit the use of Big Data. The Government can consider evaluating and adopting
these standards in its use of Big Data and analytics.
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9.
Summary
Vision
Mission
Strategic Thrusts
I
Smarter
Hong Kong,
Smarter
Living

To leverage
ICT to
benefit the
community

To unleash
the power
of
innovation
for
business
success


II
Empowering
everyone
through
technology
Igniting
business
innovation
through
exploitation of
technology
To develop a
sustainable
and vibrant
ICT
Industry
To enhance
public
services
leveraging
technology
III
IV
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
Supporting a
thriving
Hong Kong
ICT Industry
and R&D
Transforming
and
integrating
public
services
through
technology
Initiatives
Areas of Action
1.
Digital ID
(a)
(b)
(c)
Make Digital ID freely available and more convenient to use for all citizens
Continue the growth in development of e-Government using Digital ID (e.g. e-Citizen account)
Work with banks to launch e-cheque
2.
Access to technology and
broadband
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Encourage and facilitate ICT adoption for persons with disabilities
Further promote web accessibility to the community
Encourage more leverage of mobile technology in digital inclusion programmes
Facilitate internet access through Wi-Fi
3.
Broadband for schools
(a)
(b)
(c)
High bandwidth broadband access to all schools and all classrooms
Equip every classroom with the required technology for teachers and students to access and participate in interactive on-line learning
Support and training for teachers to enable them to make most effective use of this radically different learning and teaching environment
4.
Programming in schools
(a)
Promote the benefits of programming education
(b)
Strengthen programming learning for children
(c)
(d)
Support teachers in teaching programming
Encourage high-quality online education for students
5.
Information for tourists and citizens
(a)
Facilitate more mobile applications for visitors and citizens leveraging Wi-Fi services
1.
Innovative and collaboration
platform
(a)
(b)
Strengthen technology transfer from universities
Drive business excellence with a broader definition of innovation
2.
SME cloud platform
(a)
(b)
Promote SME cloud platform
Encourage collaborative information sharing on business and technology innovation for SMEs
3.
Make available PSI
(a)
Make PSI electronically available in machine readable formats for easy re-use as default
(b)
Encourage other public organisations to release PSI
(c)
Prioritise the provision of PSI for high value-added services
1.
Startup eco-system
(a)
(b)
Build a digital platform for technology startups
Facilitate startups to foster entrepreneurial culture and encourage cross-fertilisations of ideas
2.
ICT talent development
(a)
(b)
(c)
Develop ICT professional recognition framework
Enhance training with industry collaboration
Enhance ICT professional image
3.
Centre of Excellence for multi-platform apps
(a)
(b)
(c)
Provide incentives to drive multi-platform solution development for the underprivileged groups
Facilitate experience sharing and publicise success cases
Explore and facilitate multi-platform business solutions for transactions and payments
4.
Data centre and cloud computing
development
(a)
(b)
(c)
Promote Hong Kong as a prime location for data centres
Develop and promote cloud computing standards, best practices and guidelines for service consumers and providers
Lead by example in adopting cloud services across the Government
5.
Digital Media Centre of Excellence
(a)
(b)
Enable connections and collaboration between media content providers with ICT companies to create a cluster of digital media companies
Facilitate experience sharing and publicise success cases
6.
ICT Industries to access Mainland
(a)
(b)
Continue to facilitate industry collaboration across the boundary
Facilitate more concerted effort in marketing and promotion of Hong Kong’s ICT industry
1.
Mobile Government services
(a)
(b)
Create multi-platform solutions for existing public services across all Government departments, where possible
Make multi-platform by default for future e-Government services across all Government departments
2.
Integrated and targeted services
(a)
(b)
Develop and promote more integrated solutions and services
Encourage the use of the Government Cloud Platform (GovCloud) and shared services by all Government departments
3.
Smarter city Infrastructure
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Promote the deployment of sensing or IoT devices
Encourage data sharing between Government departments
Explore and encourage further productive use of ICT
Promulgate standards, approach and guidelines for Big Data across Government departments
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Appendix A – Acronyms
APICTA
ASTRI
CaaS
Caltech
CCMF
CEPA
CET
CIO
CITG
CSDA
CSDP
CUHK
D21SAC
DESA
EA
EGIS
eHR
EIM
GDP
GovCloud
GovHRMS
GovWiFi
HIV
HKD
HKDSE
HKEAA
HKIA
HKMA
HKPC
HKSAR
HKSS
HKSTP
HKTB
HKTDC
HKU
IaaS
ICT
ID
IF
IMD
IOC
IoT
IP
ITC
ITF
ITMU
ITS
Asia Pacific Information and Communications Technology Awards
Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute
Cooperation as a service
California Institute of Technology
Cyberport Creative Micro Fund
Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership
Arrangement (CEPA)
Continuing Education Training
Chief Information Officer
Composite IT Grant
Certified Software Development Associate
Certified Software Development Professional
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Digital 21 Strategy Advisory Committee
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Enterprise architecture
e-Government Infrastructure Service
Electronic Health Record
Electronic Information Management
Gross Domestic Product
Government Cloud Platform
Government Human Resources Management Services
Government Wi-Fi Programme
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Hong Kong dollar
Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education
Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority
Hong Kong International Airport
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Hong Kong Productivity Council
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Hong Kong service suppliers
Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks
Hong Kong Tourism Board
Hong Kong Trade Development Council
The University of Hong Kong
Infrastructure as a service
Information and communications technology
Identity
Interoperability Framework
The International Institute for Management Development
Intelligent Operation Centre
Internet of Things
Intellectual property
Innovation and Technology Commission
Innovation and Technology Fund
Information Technology Management Unit
Intelligent Transport System
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ITTP
MEC
MIT
MOOC
NFC
NGO
NICF
NIST
NYC
OECD
OFCA
OGCIO
OSS
P2P
PaaS
PIN
PLE
POI
POS
PSI
PSKL
PWGSC
R&D
RFID
SaaS
SBS
SETDA
SI
SMBA
SME
SSP
STEM
SWOT
SyNAPSE
TCFS
TD
The Government
UGC
UK
US
W3C
WCAG
WEF
IT Training Programme
Mobility Experience Centre
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massive open online course
Near field communication
Non-government organisation
National Infocomm Competency Framework
National Institute of Standards and Technology
New York City
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Office of the Communications Authority
The Office of the Government Chief Information Office
Open Source Software
Peer-to-Peer
Platform as a service
Personal identification number
Personal Learning Environment
Point of Interest
Point-of-sale
Public sector information
Partner State Key Laboratory
Public Works and Government Services Canada
Research and development
Radio-Frequency Identification
Software as a service
Small Business Services
The State Educational Technology Directors Association
System integration
Small and Medium Business Administration
Small and medium enterprise
Sector-specific Programme
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics
Guangdong/Hong Kong Technology Cooperation Funding Scheme
Transport Department
Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
The University Grants Committee
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
United States of America
The World Wide Web Consortium
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
World Economic Forum
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Appendix B – Secondary source documents reviewed
Office of the Communications Authority, “Key Communications Statistics”
(http://www.ofca.gov.hk/en/media_focus/data_statistics/key_stat/index.html),
Akamai, “State of the Internet, 4th Quarter, 2012 Report”
OGCIO official website – Facts & Figures, “Government IT Expenditure”
The International Institute for Management Development (IMD), “World Competitiveness Yearbook 2013”
INSEAD and World Economic Forum (WEF), “Global Information Technology Report 2013”
Census and Statistics Department, “Hong Kong Innovation Activities Statistics 2011”
Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting (Papers), http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr1112/english/panels/itb/papers/itb_eb.htm
Reference: http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr12-13/english/panels/itb/papers/itb0610cb4-711-4-e.pdf
OGCIO, “Study on Digital Inclusiveness in Hong Kong”
Gartner, ”Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for Smart Government” 2013
IDC, “Worldwide Smart Connected Devices Market Forecast Unit Shipments (Millions), 4Q 2012”
IDC, “Android Rises, Symbian^3 and Windows Phone 7 Launch as Worldwide Smartphone Shipments Increase 87.2%
Year Over Year”. 7 February 2011.
IDC, “PC Market Records Modest Gains during Fourth Quarter of 2010”. 12 January 2011.
IDC, “Worldwide Smart Connected Device Market Crossed 1 Billion Shipments in 2012, Apple Pulls near Samsung in
Fourth Quarter” 26 March 2013.
Mark van Harmelen, “Personal Learning Environment”’, IEEE Computer Society. 2006.
Forrester Research, “Sizing the cloud”
Gartner, “Forecast Overview: Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2011-2017, 1Q13 Update
Rackspace, “Economic Impact of Cloud Blog”
Cisco, “The Internet of Things How the Next Evolution of the Internet Is Changing Everything”
Cisco, “The Internet of Things – How the Next Evolution of the Internet Is Changing Everything”
Gartner, “Worldwide Wireless E-Mail Users to Reach 1 Billion by Year-End 2014”
Gartner, “World of Work Will Witness 10 Changes During the Next 10 Years”
ComScore Media Metrix, “It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-to-knows about Social Networking and where it’s headed”.
Burson-Marsteller. “Global Social Media Checkup 2012”
International Telecommunication Union (ITU), “Measuring the Information Society 2011”
InvestHK, “Annual Survey of Companies in Hong Kong Representing Parent Companies Located outside Hong Kong”
China Intellectual Property, "Hong Kong IP development: fast in speed and subtle in quality"
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Census and Statistics Department “Report on 2012 Annual Survey of Companies in Hong Kong Representing Parent
Companies Located outside Hong Kong”
Forbes, “The world's top 4 tech capitals to watch (after Silicon Valley and New York)”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2013/03/20/the-worlds-top-4-tech-capitals-to-watch-after-silicon-valley-andnew-york/2/
OGCIO, “IT Manpower Workshop report”
Trade and Industry Department, “Fact Sheets – Trade and Industry 2012”
Economist Intelligent Unit, “China’s retail market: Double dragon”
Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre, “Guangdong’s Economic Transformation in the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ and Hong
Kong’s Opportunities”
The Economist, “Alibaba – The world’s greatest bazaar”
CNN, “China looks to lead the Internet of Things”
Ageing Research Review, “Next-generation sequencing in aging research: emerging applications, problems, pitfalls and
possible solutions”
“Hong Kong Population Projections 2007-2036” released by the HKSAR Government,
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200707/16/P200707160137.htm
International Monetary Fund, “April 2013 World Economic Outlook (WEO)”
IDC, “China ICT Spending 2012 – 2016 Forecast and Analysis”
HKSAR Government, “Hong Kong Population Projections 2007-2036”,
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200707/16/P200707160137.htm
The Chartered Institute of Taxation (UK), “Digital Exclusion”
South China Morning Post, “Alibaba celebrates 1.2 million users on Taobao in Hong Kong”
Hong Kong Monetary Authority “A New Era for Retail Payment: Building a Diversified Platform for Mobile, Internetbased and Electronic Payments”
Education Bureau IT in Education Section reference document. 2012
Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA), “2012 HKDSE Entry Statistics”
OFCA, “Guidance Note for Submission of Application for Installing Micro-cell Base Station on Highway Facilities or on
Unleased and Unallocated Government Land”
OECD, “Innovation and Growth Rationale for an Innovation Strategy”
Trade and Industry Department, http://www.success.tid.gov.hk/english/lin_sup_org/gov_dep/service_detail_6863.html
Hong Kong Productivity Council “Hong Kong Cloud End-User Survey”
EuroGeographics (http://www.eurogeographics.org/products-and-services/euroglobalmap)
Census and Statistics Department, “Hong Kong as an Information Society (2013 edition)”
2012 VTC Manpower Survey Report
HKSAR Government, “Hong Kong: The Facts – Employment”,
http://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/factsheets/docs/employment.pdf
OECD, “Innovation and Growth - Rationale for and Innovation Strategy”
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills of the UK Government “Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth”
Information and Technology Commission, “Innovation and Technology Fund Statistics of Approved Projects”
INNO-Grips, Global Review of Innovation Policy Studies “Korea: Shifting SME policies towards competitiveness and
growth”
Office of Communications Authority, “Key Statistics for Telecommunications in Hong Kong”
http://www.ofca.gov.hk/filemanager/ofca/en/content_108/wireless_en.pdf
Department of Statistics, Singapore, http://www.singstat.gov.sg/statistics/browse_by_theme/national_accounts.html
Industry Canada, http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ict-tic.nsf/eng/h_it05864.html
US Department of Commerce, http://www.bea.gov/industry/gdpbyind_data.htm"
Switzerland Global Enterprise, http://www.switzerland-ge.com/fr/filefield-private/files/41328/field_blog_public_files/8025
Cushman & Wakefield, “Data Centre Risk Index”
Create HK, “Hong Kong: The Facts (October 2012)”
HKTDC, http://hong-kong-economy-research.hktdc.com/business-news/article/Hong-Kong-Industry-Profiles/FilmEntertainment-Industry-in-Hong-Kong/hkip/en/1/1X000000/1X0018PN.htm
Ministry of Commerce, People’s Republic of China,
http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/article/statistic/foreigninvestment/201301/20130100012618.shtml
FINPRO, “Internet of Things – China”, 2011
International Data Base, the US. Census Bureau
Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, 國家十二五科學和技術發展規劃,
http://www.most.gov.cn/kjgh/
United Nations DESA, “e-Government Survey 2010”, 2010
OECD, “Integrated Services and Housing Consultation”
United Nations, “Enterprise Architecture as Platform for connected government”
Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LSCM) website, http://www.lscm.hk/eng/channel.php?channel=press-release
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Appendix C – Acknowledgement
We would like to express its gratitude to all those who helped and shared their views in
the course of this study:
1
Digital 21 Strategy Advisory Committee and its Task Forces
2
Expert Group on Cloud Computing Services and Standards and its Working
Groups
3
Accenture Company Limited
4
Arcotect Limited
5
Certizen Ltd.
6
CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited
7
CSL Ltd
8
Digi-Sign Certification Services Ltd.
9
DMX Technologies (Hong Kong) Limited
10
e-Business Coordinators & Heads of ITMU of Government Departments
11
Hewlett-Packard HK SAR Limited
12
HKU SPACE
13
Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company
Ltd.
14
Hong Kong Computer Society
15
Hong Kong Computer Society CIO Board
16
Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Ltd.
17
Hong Kong Information Technology Federation (HKITF) Ltd
18
Hong Kong Information Technology Joint Council
19
Hong Kong Institution of Engineers - IT Division
20
Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Ltd.
21
Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (HKISPA)
22
Hong Kong Linux Industry Association
23
Hong Kong Next Generation Internet Society
24
Hong Kong Productivity Council
25
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation
26
IBM China/Hong Kong Limited
27
Information and Software Industry Association (ISIA)
28
Information Systems Audit and Control Association China Hong Kong Chapter
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29
Integrated Enterprise Solutions Limited
30
Internet Society Hong Kong
31
Microsoft Hong Kong Ltd
32
NCSI (HK) Limited
33
Professional Information Security Association
34
Security Consulting Services Ltd
35
The British Computer Society (Hong Kong Section)
36
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
37
The Hong Kong Electronic Industries Association (HKEIA)
38
The Hong Kong Internet Exchange
39
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
40
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
41
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., Hong Kong Section
42
The University of Hong Kong
43
Vocational Training Council
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Appendix D – ICT-related measures under the Mainland and
Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)
CEPA offers specific opportunities for Hong Kong’s ICT industry in seeking to explore
further economic collaboration with the Mainland, which include:

Hong Kong service suppliers can apply for the computer information system
integration (SI) qualification certification in accordance with the provisions of the
relevant regulations and rules promulgated by the Mainland. (Under CEPA).

Hong Kong residents are allowed to take examinations for proficiency in
computer technology and software. An examination centre has been
established in Hong Kong to facilitate Hong Kong IT professionals to take the
China Qualification Certificate of Computer and Software Technology
Proficiency. (Under Supplement II to CEPA).

Hong Kong permanent residents with Chinese citizenship are allowed to set up
individually owned stores in the Mainland to provide computer repair services.
(Under Supplement III to CEPA).

Hong Kong service suppliers are allowed to set up wholly-owned enterprises in
the Mainland to provide data processing and software implementation services.
(Under Supplement IV to CEPA).

Mutual recognition of electronic signature certificates issued by Guangdong and
Hong Kong. (Under Supplement V to CEPA).

Hong Kong service suppliers are allowed to provide cross-boundary database
services in Qianhai and Hengqin on a pilot basis. Hong Kong service suppliers
are also allowed to set up joint venture enterprises in the Mainland to provide
database services (confined to internet data centre services, store and forward
services, and content services only), with shareholding not exceeding 50%.
(Under Supplement IX to CEPA).

Hong Kong service suppliers (HKSS) are allowed to set up joint venture
enterprises in Guangdong to provide online data processing and transaction
processing services (confined to e-commerce business websites only). Their
shareholding should not exceed 55%. HKSS are allowed to employ contractual
service providers to provide such services in the mode of movement of natural
persons. (Under Supplement X to CEPA).

Under certification, accreditation and standardisation management, Guangdong
and Hong Kong will promote efficiency of the supply chain of the commodity
trade between the two places by opening up the commodity information
platform to members of the commodity bar code system of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region to enjoy the same services as those system
members in the Mainland. Both sides will also strengthen the sharing of
commodity information resources with a view to achieving bilateral verification
and inspection of commodity information circulated between the two places by
employing the global uniqueness of commodity barcoding and to jointly combat
counterfeit commodities so to optimise the business environment.” (Under
Supplement X to CEPA).
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Appendix E – Location of Wi-Fi hotspots in Hong Kong
GovWiFi premises
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Other registered Wi-Fi premises
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