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280 Mln U.S Dollars Spent to Eliminate Digital Divide in HK
The Hong Kong government has expended some 2.2 billion HK dollars (282 million US dollars) to strengthen the community for exploitation of opportunities in the digital world.
This was stated by Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting Carrie Yau, when speaking at the motion debate on " Bridging the digital divide" in the Legislative Council Wednesday.
Yau noted that a substantial proportion of the local population already had the opportunity to access information and communication technologies and the use of the Internet. Half of the households have installed computers. One third of the population are Internet users. And the mobile phone penetration rate has reached nearly 80 percent.
"The use of technologies in the community is compared favorably to many advanced economies and in fact surpasses many other economies. Therefore, digital divide is less a problem in Hong Kong as compared with other places in the world and our people have stronger capability in the exploitation of IT technology," she said.
Yau emphasized that the government had formulated clear policies in tackling the issue. She outlined a series of measures taken to bridge the gap or avoid the emergence of potential gap between various sectors of the community.
These include providing education and training, creating a favorable environment for technology diffusion in the community, enhancing knowledge and awareness, and developing e-government, according to Yau.
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