Some 67.5% of all households in Hong Kong, 1.48 million homes, had a personal computer last year.

A Government survey found that among them, some 1.31 million (88.8%) had their PC connected to the Internet, representing 60% of all households here.

The survey, conducted by the Census & Statistics Department, reveals a significant increase on 2002 when 62.1% of households had a PC at home and 52.5% had their PC connected to the Internet.

In the business sector, the percentage of establishments using PCs and having Internet connections remained stable at 54.8% and 47.5% respectively. The corresponding percentages in 2002 were 54.5% and 44.2%.

In a meeting today, the Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee was briefed on the survey results. Members also endorsed a series of recommendations to further promote the wider adoption of wireless services and technology in Hong Kong.

The major recommendations include:

* enhancing enterprise awareness of business benefits, capabilities (including the security aspects) and service offerings of wireless solutions;

* encouraging continuous development of information security technologies solutions, generic products based on open standards, and seamless end-to-end Chinese language-supported IT systems with wireless extensions;

* continuing to promote wider use of wireless services within the Government, a key IT user, in line with established e-government policy; and,

* fostering closer co-operation between various information and communication technology sectors.

The working group report is available at the website of the Commerce, Industry & Technology Bureau.