Working Report of

Legislative Councilor Samson Tam Wai Ho

(Information Technology)

(March 2010)

I. Focus Updates

1.    Discussion on how to promote e-engagement with the government officials
       與官員探討如何推動電子公民參與 

Recently, more and more government officials open accounts in social networking portals to strive for direct communication with the public. However, the question is how the Government could encourage e-engagement to achieve better results. For this purpose, I organized a forum together with social livelihood concern groups and youth organizations. We invited Mr. Raymond Tam, Director of CE’s Office, and over 20 government officials from more than 10 government departments to have an open discussion on this subject. In the forum, Mr. Tam frankly admitted that the sustainability of this approach was his prime concern. In my opinion, the public is willing to communicate with government officials. However, the government system lacks the mechanism to allow mistakes and officials lack the readiness to accept public criticisms. If we can overcome these shortcomings, it is not hard to implement e-engagement.

2.   Vice President of CAE was invited to discuss on Triple Play in China
      邀請中國工程院副院長探討中國三網融合

On 8 March, the forum of “Opportunities and Challenges of Triple Play” was co-organized by the Beijing-Hong Kong Academic Exchange Centre, the Idea for Hong Kong and my LegCo office. Professor Wu Hequan, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) was invited as the Guest of Honour to speak on the occasion. Triple Play refers to the interconnection of telecommunications, TV broadcasting and the Internet networks. Professor Wu mentioned that the huge market potential of Triple Play would bring the industry many opportunities and economic benefits due to numerous Chinese Internet users and voluminous online activities. As for challenges, they are mainly in the harmonization of technology standards, improvement of government regulations and formulation of relevant rules of law. I believe, Triple Play and resource-sharing will be a general trend. How the local enterprises could take part in Triple Play with their past experiences, therefore is worthy of our further discussion.

3.   Witnessed the establishment of “Hong Kong Next Generation Internet Society”
      見證「香港下一代互聯網學會」成立

I was invited to the Inauguration Ceremony of the Hong Kong Next Generation Internet Society (HKNGIS). Together with local and Chinese IT industry friends, we witnessed the establishment of the Society on 9 March. Founded by some local industry veterans, it was chaired by Dr. Ng Nam. Governments all over the world which have foresight are devoted to building next generation Internet. Therefore, Hong Kong should not lag behind. The mission of HKNGIS is to rally the effort of the IT industry to push the Government to implement NGI and move Hong Kong towards a knowledge-based economy, which was worthy of our support. In the subsequent seminar, Professor Wu Hequan, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering was invited to introduce the latest development of NGI in the Mainland.

4.   Invited to be the keynote speaker in FutureGov Forum Hong Kong
      擔任「未來政府香港論壇」特邀演講嘉賓

I was invited to be the keynote speaker in the FutureGov Forum Hong Kong on 9 March. I shared my views on Gov 2.0 with IT friends and government officials from the Asia- Pacific region. Through this forum, I also learnt the experiences of foreign countries, such as Australia’s Victorian Public Service Action Plan introduced by the Victorian Government in November 2009.  This plan was signed by all Department Heads requiring them to implement 11 initiatives.  The Korean Government also set a Green Informatization Plan to drive e-Government into Green Government. The next forum will be held in Dalian in September 2010, I will continue to take part in if time permits.

5.   The Government should strengthen the development of submarine cables
      政府應加強海底電纜基建發展

At the meeting of the Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting this month, members discussed the landing of submarine cables and the development of digital audio broadcasting. Members were concerned if local development of submarine cables has fallen behind other Asian landing points such as Singapore and Taiwan. The response from the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau reflected that the Government was aware of the seriousness of the problem and has proposed several suggestions to land more submarine cables in Hong Kong. It is hoped to discuss with stakeholders on the promotion of the measures later. In my view, the Government should fight for more submarine cable landing points in Hong Kong and enhance the outgoing telecommunications network infrastructure development so as to strengthen Hong Kong’s position as a regional telecommunications hub.

6.   Set up a web 2.0 platform for interactive discussion with the public on the Budget
      設立web 2.0平台與市民互動討論財政預算案

Immediately after the release of the Budget of 2010, I started a group discussion in the Facebook, calling “IT people to read the Budget”. I hope to collect opinions from the public through this web 2.0 platform, thus drawing public attention and generating discussion on the Budget. Consequently, I raised 53 written questions with the Government, which covered several policy areas touching on promotion of e-government, e-engagement, funding arrangements for IT projects, as well as education, environmental protection, health, security, housing and transportation. To see the replies from the Government, please click the following link:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=339042969816

II. Articles Sharing (Chinese Only)

1. 社交媒體 的行銷威力
   刊登於《電腦廣場》
   2010年3月30日

2. 香港網上 音樂何時起飛？
   刊登於《星島日報》
   2010年3月25日

3. 網絡化下 的 區域人才庫
   刊登於《電腦廣場》
   2010年3月24日

4. 落實電子 公民參與政府準備好了嗎？
   刊登於《星島日報》
   2010年3月18日

5. 建立網絡 合作夥伴為企業增值
   刊登於《電腦廣場》
   2010年3月16日

6. 做個低碳 網絡消費者
   刊登於《星島日報》
   2010年3月11日

7. 將靈感變 做財富
   刊登於《電腦廣場》
   2010年3月9日

8. 我想免費 看世界盃
   刊登於《星島日報》
   2010年3月4日

9. 從買賣生 意加快企業創新
   刊登於《電腦廣場》
   2010年3月3日