New platform: Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Frederick Ma invites people to express their views on the 2008 Digital 21 Strategy through his dedicated blog.

A task force will be formed to formulate strategies and initiatives to help the underprivileged gain access to information and communications technology (ICT), the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer says.

According to the 2008 Digital 21 Strategy released today, the task force comprises representatives from Government departments as well as industry and community stakeholders.

The Government will join non-government organisations to form district cyber centres to enhance ICT accessibility and provide training opportunities for the public, particularly underprivileged groups.

It will also launch a new round of district-based programmes to promote the benefits of ICT applications in an information society.

More affordable choices

To drive ICT take-up among small and medium enterprises the Government will work with the ICT industry to study the possibilities of offering more affordable choices for SMEs, such as open source software solutions, software-as-a-service and pay-as-you-go models.

It will gauge the industry's interest in offering all-in-one packages to SMEs, including personal computer hardware and software, Internet connection and support services at affordable prices.

On the provision of e-Government services the document said the new portal GovHK provides access to 1,200 government electronic services. Many new services will soon be added.

Meanwhile, the Government will start rolling out pilot e-procurement projects progressively from 2008 to 2009, after which a review will be conducted and the findings will form the basis for the Government to consider the way forward for extending the e-Procurement initiative to all bureaux and departments.

New blog launched

Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Frederick Ma today also launched his dedicated blog to offer a new platform to enable the public to exchange views with the Government on the newly released strategy.

The blog features video clips of Mr Ma sharing his views on ICT development and visiting various organisations which are using ICT to enhance the effectiveness of their business operations.

"The Digital 21 Strategy is a dynamic roadmap that is flexible and adaptive to take into account changes in the technological landscape and the evolving needs of society. I hope my blog may help lay members of the public to better understand the strategy and the importance of ICT development in our everyday life," Mr Ma said.

"Members of the public are most welcome to visit my blog and leave me their comments. I value your views and will post my thinking through text or video clips on Hong Kong's ICT development in the next few months."