And to facilitate the work of the provisional board and enable the establishment of the new corporation as early as possible with a view to promoting the Internet and e-commerce development in Hong Kong, the Government has provided a one-off grant of $3 million to the JUCC for setting up the proposed new corporation.

Briefing members of the Legislative Council Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting, Deputy Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, Mr Alan Siu, said the decision to set up a new corporation to assume the overall responsibility of Internet domain names administration in Hong Kong was made in accordance with the results of a public consultation carried out in June/July this year, and was endorsed by the Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee.

The Director of Information Technology Services, Mr K H Lau also said at the briefing, "As a first step, the JUCC, the current administrator of ".hk" domain names, has set up a provisional body under it with wide representation from the universities, industry, Government, Internet users and other concerned parties to take forward the transfer of JUCC's administrative functions for Internet domain names to the proposed new corporation.

Apart from the proposed new corporation, the results of the public consultation also showed that the public support the adoption of a more flexible domain name registration policy, aiming at promoting e-commerce in Hong Kong.

New measures, including accepting registration of multiple domain names, allowing transfer of domain names on valid grounds, and creating a new second level domain category under ".hk" to enable registration by individuals, etc. would be adopted. An alternative dispute resolution mechanism to facilitate early resolution of domain name disputes without the need to resort to court settlement would also be established.

Mr Lau supplemented, "The JUCC has established a provisional board under its auspices for the new corporation earlier this month. According to the latest plan, the provisional board will appoint the dispute resolution service provider(s) in early 2001 and the proposed new registration policies will be implemented by mid-2001."

"It is also anticipated that the provisional board will be transformed into the new corporation, with its directors elected from its members, in about a year's time, by end 2001."

The one-off grant of $3 million will meet the requirement of extra equipment and manpower resources for the implementation of the new organization proposal and registration policies as early as possible.

The membership of the provisional board includes the representatives from the member institutions of the JUCC, Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association, Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, Hong Kong Computer Society, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Consumer Council, legal profession and the Government.