All government emails are managed by government personnel and stored in government-owned data centres located in Hong Kong.

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer made the statement today in response to media enquiries on the Centrally Managed Messaging Platform.

It said emails are protected by multiple layers of security, including encryption, to avoid data leakage.

The office invited tenders for a system integrator to provide an email solution for the new platform through an open tender last year.

Tenders from local, overseas and Mainland companies are normally accepted in open tendering.

In February the contract was awarded to Richinfo Technology, which is a member of the Microsoft Partner Network.

The office noted that Richinfo adopted the Microsoft Exchange email solution instead of using its self-developed RichMail system.

The contractor has no access to any emails or user data in the systems in carrying out system integration, migration and maintenance work.

The office added actual system operation and execution of system migration will only be performed by the offices personnel.