Addressing "From e-Government to e-Security Conference 2003," Director of Information Technology Services Alan Wong Chi-kong noted that SAR government has been making substantial investment in its IT infrastructure and systems, which amounted to 1.75 billion HK dollars in the current financial year.

"In a tight budget year, these figures reflect our strong commitment to sustain a continuous roll-out of government IT projects," he commented at the two-day conference that began Wednesday.

The money has been used to fund a number of enhancement to the government's IT infrastructure, including improving the accessibility to computer facilities in the civil service, upgrading the Government Backbone Network for broadband connections and establishing a common transaction platform for electronic service delivery.

To modernize government operations by using IT and promote the wider adoption of e-business in the community, Wong said, the government aims to increase the percentage of e-option of government services from the present 80 percent to 90 percent by the end of this year.

Moreover, the SAR government has adopted a pioneering public-private partnership approach in driving its e-government initiatives, thus enabling it to capture the best available services in the market and optimize cost-effective benefits.

Meanwhile, the introduction of the Multi-Application Smart ID card will be rolled out in mid 2003, which, besides value-added functions such as library card and digital certificate, will provide a platform for automatic passenger clearance at border points, Wong pointed out.

Jointly organized by the Hong Kong University School of Professional and Continuing Education and the Hong Kong Productivity Council, the conference aims at benchmarking the up-to-date development of e-government and e-security in Asia.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2003)