The Information Revolution

Panelist presentations

Mr Alex Arena.

Mr Arena recapped the phenomenal expansion of the information technology industries in Hong Kong. He noted that licensees were willing to invest substantially into the telecommunications infrastructures, which in turn had facilitated other major industries ranging from tourism to transportation.

According to Mr Arena, the Government, while encouraging competition, would see to it that the installation of physical assets would not inhibit further development. It also encourages broadband network applications in areas such as electronic commerce, medical and health care, galleries and museums, as well as education and entertainment. To achieve this, the Government will play an active role in coordinating support for the service industries in terms of human resources training.

He stressed that IT should not be equated with the Internet, which is only one early application of IT. Advances in multi-media and broadband technologies would render the Internet primitive. However, issues on security, taxation and privacy would need to be addressed.

Mr Peter Wong.

Mr Wong noted that fixed telecommunications network operators had to keep up with the trend of convergence in the hardware, software, broadcasting, and consumer electronic industries. The use of networks can reduce costs on home access devices. However, he observed that the telephone network today was not designed for this need to accelerate. The use of optical fibre, network architect and interface and supplementary broadband networks are topics that needed to be looked into, while maintaining a simple form of network. Commitment is needed between Government and business to iron out the complicated issues of inter-connectivity among public networks.

He noted that the urban setting of Hong Kong was unique and complex. Many structures would have to be developed specifically to meet the local conditions, instead of simply shopping from the shelves.

Professor Charles Kao.

Professor Kao commented that it was essential for Hong Kong to foster a vision in utilizing information to facilitate the service sector to prosper. Boosting productivity and improving delivery aside, IT can also allow businesses to respond better to market needs in a more direct way. Sea port, air cargo and land traffic, for instance, can be integrated by information technology to make delivery more efficient. Professor Kao also elaborated on the importance of promotion and education of IT. He described it as of “absolute importance” for networks to be built to support schools in this regard.

Another major area of concern is the removal of regulatory barriers. Professor Kao noted that Singapore had adopted a centrally-directed approach in its attempt to turn the island republic into the best information technology city in the world. In the case of Hong Kong, businesses are encouraged to take their own initiatives. The Government should, however, ensure that there are no unnecessary obstacles, such as those arising from the interpretation of regulations.

Discussion and commentsThe issues raised during the discussion session can be summarised as follows.

Government emphasis.

A participant suggested that the Government had given a false impression that Hong Kong had already developed an excellent telecommunications infrastructure. He warned that Hong Kong should not be complacent and there were areas which had been neglected in the past few years. He observed that the telecom industry had in fact been dominated by big companies while as much as 95 per cent of businesses are small and medium enterprises. In response, Mr Arena noted that IT had in fact given rise to numerous new opportunities for business. He cited the success of the Amazon virtual book shop as an example and suggested that there could be many similar operations in Hong Kong.

Immigration restrictions.

One participant complained that current immigration restrictions had made it difficult for people from overseas to operate in Hong Kong. He wanted the Immigration Department to “open up” to absorb such overseas resources and expertise.

Dissemination of statistics and research data.

A university professor commented that a lot of useful data such as trade statistics and university research findings had yet to be put on the net for public consumption. He proposed that the Government should take a more active role to encourage archiving of such information for public sharing. On this point an official pointed out that key trade and economic data were already available in the Census and Statistics Department's web site. He explained that the Government intended to turn more printed reports into readily accessible electronic formats, whenever the needs are ascertained.

Top-down vs bottom-up approaches.

A participant was of the view that the Singapore-style top-down approach in promoting IT was not compatible with the Hong Kong way of doing business. He called it “gratifying” that Hong Kong had opted for a bottom-up approach to allow input from the grassroots level.

Business trend.

A business sector participant noted that, in the developed countries, businesses were no longer competing on prices and qualities alone. Instead, timing and efficiency in delivery have become increasingly critical. Businesses are seeking to deliver their products and services at the shortest time possible, so as to remain responsive to rapid market changes. She observed that the traditional business concept would focus on securing big orders. In contrast, operators today rely more on IT for small orders to be completed with little advance notice. She suggested that the authorities should have facilitated application of IT in trade and commerce practices, including sourcing and scanning of goods.

Middle-aged decision-makers.

Mr Arena noted that many decision-makers were middle-aged managers, who might not feel comfortable in using computers. It is thus important to create a culture to encourage these people to rise up to the IT challenge. Professor Kao advised that the idea was to apply IT to do traditional things more efficiently; pushing people to "jump" when they were not ready would be counter-productive.

IT and tourism.

A participant noted that tourism, as an information business, involved fundamentally the flow of information from the product providers either directly to the customers or through trade agents. He envisaged that IT would bring about a fundamental revolution in the way services were to be provided in this industry. This is particularly significant in view of the recent global trend of the product providers, such as hotels, airlines and entertainment business, adopting a direct customer-oriented marketing approach to obtain business, as against the traditional dependence on intermediaries such as travel agents. IT will thus play a critical role in the structural change in the tourism industry.

The following discussion focused specifically on education issues.

Fast track for academic initiatives

There were complaints from the floor that the local universities had not been training enough talents to meet demands in the telecommunications industry. It was noted that university resources had often been invested in the so-called “pet professions”, such as law and medicine. It was recommended that the University Grants Committee should readdress its orientation by introducing a mechanism for “fast track” approval of funds to meet such demands.

Student quotas.

A professor criticised the current funding system based on full time students equivalents as inflexible. A university would need to cut student quota from existing departments to make room for new programmes. This often proved to be an uphill battle as there would be considerable resistance from the established disciplines. He proposed that, in order to put money where the mouth is, the University Grants Committee should make available extra student quotas for new IT-related courses.Chinese software. Participants have welcomed the Chief Executive's commitment to equip schools with more computers. There were, however, worries concerning inadequate software support. It was thought the authorities should encourage the development of Chinese education software.

Computers as pencils.

An academic was of the view that Hong Kong's data system was lagging far behind the advanced countries. He held that the authorities had embarked on a wrong track by installing computers in separate rooms for the schools. He contended that computers should be treated as no more than pencils, rather than something special - nobody would teach students how to use pencils. In the same token, computers should be regarded simply as a tool. The primary goal, he proposed, should be set to allow “everybody to be connected everywhere.”