More than 70% of Hong Kong households now have a personal computer connected to the Internet, strengthening the city's status as one of the world's leading digital hubs.

A survey conducted in mid-2007 found 1,671,600 households, or 74.2% of all domestic premises in Hong Kong, had a personal computer. Of them, 94.5% had their computers connected to the Internet, representing 70.1% of the city's households.

The Census & Statistics Department today said the figure represents a slight rise on last year when 71.7% of households had a computer and 67.1% had it connected to the Internet.

About 66.4% of people aged 10 had used personal computers at least once and 64.8% had used the Internet.

e-Business utilisation high

Utilisation of electronic business services was also high. About 98.2% of people aged 15 and over had used electronic business services, a slight rise on last year's 97.4%. About 10.1% of that age group had used online purchasing services.

About 2,299,500 people aged 10 and over, or 37.6% of all people in that age group, had used online Government services.

The percentage of establishments using personal computers was 63.8%, 3.2 percentage points higher than that in 2006. The percentage of establishments having Internet connection also increased from 55.9% in 2006 to 59.8% in 2007. About 18.2% of the establishments had webpages or websites, 0.6 of a percentage point higher than the figure in 2006. 

About 59.3% of establishments had conducted electronic business activities, 3.1 percentage points higher than in 2006. About 58.3% of the establishments had received goods, services or information through electronic means, up 3.6 percentage points on 2006.

Promotion continues

The Government will continue to collaborate with industry and professional bodies and non-government organisations in facilitating business sectors, especially small and medium enterprises, to exploit the full potential and benefits of information technology.

The target sectors of the new round of its Sector-specific Programme include beauty services, medical and health, watches and clocks, social services, and trade.

These new projects will focus on the development of pilot e-business applications and the establishment of industry portal sites to enhance knowledge sharing and information dissemination, thereby driving e-business adoption amongst the target sectors and enhancing their competitiveness.