About $4.9 million in sponsorship was provided for five projects driving the development of industry-specific e-business applications or platforms in the first half of 2007, Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Frederick Ma says.

Replying to Wong Ting-kwong's question in the Legislative Council today, Mr Ma said of the five projects three will bolster portal sites at the sector level targeting small and medium enterprises from the watches and clocks, social-service and beauty-service sectors.

The portal site for the watches and clocks sector will help these enterprises develop e-commerce and conduct virtual exhibitions. The portal site for the social-service sector will boost the sharing of frequently-used reference materials in digital format from the Council of Social Service Library. The portal for the beauty-service sector will offer an online booking service. These portal sites will be available for use by small and medium enterprises within 2008-09.

According to a Census & Statistics Department survey, last year there were 54,719 business establishments having webpages or websites, with 60.2% in to the wholesale, retail, import-export trades, restaurants and hotels sector; 20.2% the financing, insurance, real estate and business services sector; and 10.2% the community, social and personal services sector.