1.2 - C. Benefits and issues of implementing e-government

Harnessing the full potential of IT was a major challenge to all Governments. Ms. Caroline Fan from the Government of Hong Kong, China, shared with the workshop the e-government experience of her country in meeting that challenge. She said, the Government of Hong Kong, China had implemented e-government gradually. The 'first wave' initiatives had created interest, drive and momentum for e-government, through:

• Fostering e-business opportunities
• Enhanced productivity and efficiency
• Improved quality of life for the community
• Sustained competitiveness and position in the world

By the end of 2003, Hong Kong, China had successfully achieved its target of providing an e-option for 90 per cent of public services amenable to the electronic mode of delivery. A recent survey conducted by AC Nielsen showed that about 70 per cent of Hong Kong Internet users had used egovernment services. A number of other notable successes had also been achieved:

• More than 95 per cent of the official trade-related documents were submitted electronically to the Government
• Over 80 per cent of procurement tenders were carried out through electronic means
• About 10 million hits per month on the employment searches through the government web site www.jobs.gov.hk*

That success had been assisted by the adoption of strategies to prepare for the information economy. In 1998, an ICT blueprint, Digital 21 Strategy, was developed to guide the use of IT to enhance productivity, generate economic growth and improve the quality of life for all. As an initial step, the focus was to build Hong Kong’s information infrastructure and to create a foundation for growth in the use of IT. The Strategy aimed at establishing a favourable environment that encouraged both public and private sectors to adopt IT and e-business. Since then, Hong Kong, China had made great strides in putting in place the necessary environment, infrastructure, skills and culture to encourage the development and adoption of IT by the community.

Having set a strategy and targets, the Government progressively put in place the physical, legal and technical infrastructure in which IT and ecommerce would flourish. To enable interconnectivity, telecommunications and broadcasting regimes were liberalized to enhance competition, consumers' choice and quality of service. Within government, a broadband, wide-area communication backbone connecting all department networks was built. A Cyber Central Government Office (CCGO) was established on the Intranet to enable information dissemination among the bureaux and departments and to facilitate their daily operation. Further, an Accessibility Programme for the whole Government was launched. The three-year initiative aimed to provide shared IT facilities to all government employees, to further drive the adoption of Government–to–Government (G2G) and government–to–business (G2B) services within the Government.

An Electronic Transactions Ordinance was enacted in 2000 to provide a legal framework. Under that Ordinance, electronic records and digital signatures were given the same legal status as that of their paper-based counterparts. It also laid down a framework for certification authorities to support the conduct of secure electronic transactions.

Information security was a key element in e-business and a number of agencies were established to monitor and regulate various aspects of egovernment in that area. The Information Security Management Committee was set up to formulate IT security policy and oversee IT security implementation in government systems and electronic services.

The Government Information Security Incident Response Office was also set up to carry out the various tasks to proactively combat threats and monitor the effectiveness of protective measures. The Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT/CC) was established to monitor virus and disseminate information. An IT security portal was launched to promote the security awareness and concern of computer related crimes to the community (www.infosec.gov.hk*).

Since 1998, Hong Kong, China has implemented a series of programmes to raise awareness of, confidence in, and familiarity of, the community with the use of IT. A five-year IT education strategy was also formulated to integrate IT into education.

To increase access to all, the Government also installed personal computers with Internet connections for free use by the public at convenient locations across the territory, such as community cyber points, district cyber centres and post offices. Some stations were supported by assistive devices to meet the distinct needs of groups such as senior citizens and people with disabilities.

To sustain competitiveness, the adoption of e-business needed to be encouraged. In Hong Kong, China, more than 95 per cent of enterprises were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While large corporations and multinational companies required less assistance to go "cyber", SMEs needed encouragement and assistance in migrating to e-operation.

Ms. Fan discussed some of the services offered by the e-government initiative in Hong Kong, China. One successful initiative was the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) Scheme. With ESD, members of the public were provided with convenient, innovative, reliable and high quality access to some 180 public services from over 50 government agencies in a one-stop manner through the Internet. Since its launch in 2000, ESD has won a number of major awards. The ESD Scheme was a public-private partnership arrangement. By running commercial services and accepting advertisements, the ESD operator had the incentive to make investment and assume the business and financial risk, thereby saving public money investment in the implementation. It was an innovative business model, the ESD operator was allowed to run its commercial business in addition to the government business. For example, the operator could provide commercial marriage packages while citizens made their bookings for marriage registration date.

Being a commercial organization, the ESD operator could also adopt various measures to motivate greater utilization in the community. They had collaborated with some credit card companies to rebate customers on payment for government leisure facilities when using credit cards. They also offered eshop coupons to customers using their tax filing services.

The Multi-Application Smart Identity Card project was another major inter-departmental undertaking of the Government. Through that project citizens had the option to include a digital certificate in their smart ID card. They could also opt for value-added applications including a library card and in the future, their driving licence.

The Automatic Passenger Clearance (APC) System was to be implemented at Control Points by 2005. That would enable citizens to cross the border by presenting their smart ID card at an APC kiosk in a self-service manner.

Additional e-Government initiatives included the Government Electronic Trading Services (GETS). GETS enabled the foreign trading companies to submit official trade-related documents to three government departments: Trade and Industry, Customs and Excise, and Census and Statistics. Starting from January 2004, traders had the choice to submit trade-related documents using either the XML or EDI format (www.gets.gov.hk)*.

The Easy Change of Address (ECOA) was another joined-up e- Government initiative enabling citizens to notify 12 government departments of their change of address at the same time. The service has been expanded to 12 other commercial entities or charity organizations.

Further, Ms. Fan stated that Hong Kong, China aimed to streamline the processes involved in the criminal justice system, from the arrest of suspects, through to identification, prosecution, trial, and correctional and rehabilitation processes leading to the ultimate release of the convicted. The planned Integrated Criminal Justice Process would help to improve the criminal justice efficiency and service quality through timely sharing of complete, accurate and critical information among various government agencies involved in the process.

Drive and support from the top wer a critical success factors for egovernment development. In recognition, the Government of Hong Kong, China set up a policy bureau in 1998 to steer IT directions and policies. An egovernment Coordination Office was also established under the bureau to centrally coordinate and drive e-government initiatives across government. The factors contributing to the successful e-government implementation were summarized as the following SECRET:

• Strategy
• Enabling environment
• Customer-centric and create value
• Re-engineering processes in delivering the e-services
• Continuous drive and support from the Top

In the plenary discussion that followed, Ms. Fan was asked about the format and structure of the e-government Coordination Office and how e- Government activities were financed. She answered that the bureau formulated policy, while all the planning of e-government activities was executed by the e-government Coordination Office. That helped to create a channel of communication among policy and executing agencies. Financing of those activities was a difficult issue in many countries in the region wishing to start up egovernment activities. In Hong Kong, China, the Government invested in infrastructure and offered some incentives to operators to attract them initially. Ms. Fan said it might be interesting for other countries to look at Hong Kong's model in terms of replication, but reaching that level might take some time.

* These links take you outside the ADBI website.

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