Right balance: Secretary for Commerce, Industry & Technology John Tsang says he aims to devise an anti-spam legal framework which will be accepted by different stakeholders.

Hong Kong has become a founding signatory of a multilateral pact to facilitate its co-operation with other Asia-Pacific signatories in tackling spam, and details of the agreement will be announced soon, Secetrary for Commerce, Industry & Technology John Tsang says.

Speaking on RTHK's "Dialogue with Secretaries" today, Mr Tsang said the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Countering Spam are one of the many measures to counter spamming, which has been growing more serious in Hong Kong. A recent survey showed 55% of all emails are junk mails, of which 5% are originated from Hong Kong and others from overseas.

He noted a campaign entitled "STEPS" - strengthening existing regulatory measures, technical solutions, education, partnerships and statutory measures - has been launched in fighting the spam epidemic.

The Government has been liaising with the trade on stepping up penalities for irresponsible marketing behaviour by reducing the timeframe required to cut off their access to telecoms services. It is expected the measure will be in place in two or three months' time.

More discussions needed

On statutory measures, Mr Tsang said the work is rather complicated and more discussions are needed, in particular on whether to make spamming a criminal offence, adding exchanges with the trade, the business sector and consumers are on-going to gauge views on the issue.

He stressed the key is to strike the right balance between the need to discourage spamming and to enable legitimate e-marketing activities to develop properly as well as the freedom of expression.

On the World Trade Organisation Sixth Ministerial Conference, Mr Tsang said the event will boost Hong Kong's image in the international arena.

He will chair an informal ministerial meeting in Paris in May, and join meetings in Beijing and Geneva in July, hoping the first approximations of modalities can be produced by end-July.

Mr Tsang noted intelligence exchanges have been stepped up on possible protests during the December conference, and arrangements are being drawn up for peaceful protests.

On the progress of RTHK's digital broadcasting, Mr Tsang said this mode of broadcasting is costly and is not popular in other countries, adding the Government will keep a close watch on the latest developments.