HK Government Takes Measures to Promote IT UseThe Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has implemented a wide range of measures to promote the wider use of information technology (IT), a Hong Kong official said Wednesday.Speaking to an IT forum, Carrie Yau, secretary for information technology and broadcasting, said, "IT has become an indispensable element in the daily lives of Hong Kong people." At present, more than 2.4 million of Hong Kong people are Internet users and Internet traffic doubled to reach more than 13 billion minutes per month in May 2000, according to Yau. To promote the community's familiarization toward IT, the government has deployed Hong Kong Post to act as a public certification authority and established a public key infrastructure to offer certification services, she said. Through the operation of certification authorities and with the use of digital certificates, the government can address the issues of authentication, integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation in electronic transactions and is assured of a secure and trusted environment of e-commerce, Yau said. Meanwhile, to encourage more extensive IT adoption, the HKSAR government will take the lead by implementing the electronic service delivery scheme in October this year, to provide an open and common information infrastructure for the public to obtain government services on-line, she said. The scheme will also serve to induce e-commerce development in the private sector by allowing commercial services provision through the government IT infrastructure, Yau added. Furthermore, the government also provides computer, Internet and electronic mail services at community halls, post offices and libraries for use by the public free of charge. In the coming months, the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau will join the Information Technology Services Department and Home Affairs Department to organize IT courses in the community to promote public interest in IT, Yau said. Yau also described the ongoing InfoTech Forum 2000 as a good chance for the promotion of the public's IT awareness. The two-day Wisers InfoTech Forum 2000 was inaugurated here Wednesday to draw about 100 leading information experts from majormedia of China's mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao to discuss IT development and opportunities and challenges brought about by the information age. |
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