Development of a National Information Infrastructure (NII)
A paper by the Hong Kong Coalition of Service Industries

NII is the ability to process, store and share information on a national basis.

A new Information Technology model is emerging rapidly. This model connects potential users of information with suppliers of information via networks and a variety of input devices. This model of information technology is already evolving, i.e. the Internet with over 30 million users daily, and is projected to have revolutionary impacts on the future of business and the contact between business and government. It is based on the concept of any user to any application, anywhere at anytime. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the information superhighway.

Most governments around the world, including developing economies, supported in many cases by World Bank initiatives, have developed or are developing strategies to position their economies for the information society of the future. To date, Hong Kong has taken no coordinated initiatives to position itself for the fast-approaching change to the basic ways we conduct business and government. This is in sharp contrast to the highly focused strategies of other countries in the Asia Pacific Region, e.g. Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia, to name just a few.

Using NII has many benefits, for individual businesses and for economies as a whole. The key benefits, such as faster movement of information and goods, quicker response times to customers' requests, more accurate and timely availability of information, improved customer relations and service, can all contribute to maintaining a competitive edge both for individual firms and Hong Kong as whole. However, to be cost-competitive, there is a clear need to develop a single infrastructure and common standards upon which such applications can be developed and implemented.

The rapid evolution of Hong Kong's information infrastructure to this new model for computing is vital to our economic future. We will not be able to compete, nor to attract new businesses or new regional offices to Hong Kong if we take days or hours to process business to government, or business to business transactions, if in other geographies it happens at sub-second speed. For example, a foundation of Hong Kong's success in the monetary area is the ability to implement decisions based on sub-second response time which is equal to anywhere in the world. By contrast, the documentation flow of the Hong Kong port and government appears backward as compared to, for example, Singapore.

The evolution of this information infrastructure requires both public and private sector initiatives and recognition that we are entering a new "Information Technology" revolution that will have as vast an impact as the Industrial Revolution. The transformation of the infrastructure requires public sector leadership, with strong private sector investment. The latter cannot happen without the clear definition of ground rules and standards. There is a clear need for government to take the lead in the development of the soft infrastructure for the future in the same way as roads, airports, telecommunications networks are part of the "hard" economic infrastructure of today.

Recommendations for Future Action

To prepare for the "Information Age", to catch up with developments in Information Technology and the development of a "National Information Infrastructure", a subcommittee has been established by the Information Services Committee of the Hong Kong Coalition of Service Industries to study and make recommendations on an Information Infrastructure strategy for Hong Kong.

An NII cannot be developed without the support and commitment of the Hong Kong government. The view of the HKCSI is that government should develop and publish a policy paper setting out its own goals as a user of the NII, and how it sees its role in actively encouraging wider use of NII throughout the business community. This should address issues such as education and training, incentives to use and invest in NII, the establishment of an adequate legal framework so that any doubt as to the legality of business conducted on the NII is removed, and the establishment of an appropriate environment for continued research and development of business solutions for small and medium sized enterprises, particularly those companies that use Chinese in their everyday business. At the same time, trade and industry associations should be encouraged to endorse the use of the NII as a business practice. They should be asked to support the principle that, wherever possible, users of NII should implement it in a standard format, using international standards such as those developed under the aegis of the United Nations and International Standards Organisation, and in particular the group of standards known as UN/EDIFACT.

More importantly, government should take a leadership role in the endorsement/establishment of these standards - where standards are associated with open and widest possible use in accordance with the established procedures and practice on an international basis. The principle of "any to any from anywhere and anytime", with reasonable guarantees of security and privacy should prevail.

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