Smart ID Cards to help promote HK's e-commerce

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 12, 2004

Smart ID Cards to help promote HK's e-commerce

The future of e-commerce in Hong Kong looks bright, with over 210,000 Smart ID Card holders already embedding Hongkong Post's e-Cert in their cards.

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The future of e-commerce in Hong Kong looks bright, with over 210,000 Smart ID Card holders already embedding Hongkong Post's e-Cert in their cards.

Hongkong Post conducted Thursday a briefing for the public about the security features of e-Cert and its applications to facilitate on-line transactions, in particular in e-banking.

Allen Mok, Hongkong Post's general manager (Electronic Services), and Li Shu-pui, head of the Banking Development Department from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), provided updates on the latest e-banking developments, and the safety measures recently introduced, including e-Cert, to protect the interests of on-line banking service providers as well as their customers.

Mok said, "The government has been striving to promote Hong Kong's international image as a dynamic digital city and one of the initiatives is to encourage people to apply for e-Cert embedded Smart ID Cards. We already have more than 210,000 e-Cert subscribers through the Smart ID Card bulk replacement exercise and the number is ever increasing."

"With the ease of accessibility of the e-Cert embedded Smart ID Card, it creates a very favorable and convenient environment for conducting secure e-commerce, be it e-banking, on-line securities trading, shopping or betting," said Mok.

Li said it is a worldwide trend that more and more banking transactions are conducted on-line, and Hong Kong is no exception."Currently there are around 38 authorized institutions offering Internet banking services in Hong Kong. At the end of 2003, there were around 2.2 million personal Internet banking accounts (compared with 1.6 million in 2002 or an increase of 37 percent) and 67,000 business Internet banking accounts (compared with 31,000 in 2002 or an increase of 116 percent)," he said.

"In addition, the total numbers of financial transactions of personal and business Internet banking services increased encouragingly by 38 percent and 440 percent respectively during 2003. While enjoying the benefits of increasing use of on-line transactions and the greater convenience that comes with it, consumers should also take every precaution over security to protect their own interests," Li said.

The identity verification by e-Cert is based on users' digital signature rather than shared secret or password transmitted over the Internet. In addition, e-Cert gives users peace of mind by protecting the on-line transactions from being tampered with, either deliberately or accidentally," Mok said.

Source:Xinhua

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