The aim of Hong Kong's strategy is to develop Hong Kong as a leading digital city in the globally connected world to enable the jurisdiction to maintain its competitive edge as well as promoting economic expansion. 'Most of the planned initiatives of the 1998 Digital 21 Strategy had been successfully completed with significant achievements,' said the Acting Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Cheng Yan-chee.

Mr Cheng added: 'Hong Kong has one of the best telecommunications infrastructures in the world and our mobile penetration rate, which is about 80 per cent, is one of the world's highest. Our broadband network has covered practically all commercial buildings and over 95 per cent of households. Besides, the Internet penetration rate is the highest in Asia and among the top 10 in the world. We have a high utilisation rate of smart card technology with more than seven million in use.'

Earlier this year the Hong Kong government published the details of its 2001 Digital 21 Strategy. With the theme of "Connecting the World", the revised strategy aims at building on Hong Kong's early success in establishing a solid foundation for the use of IT to position Hong Kong as a leading e-business community and a global digital city.

Currently 65 per cent of the government's public services can be accessed via the Internet and it is the government's intention to increase the figure to 90 per cent by the end of 2003. Under the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) Scheme, the Hong Kong community can obtain a wide range of services from various government departments and agencies through the Internet or public kiosks, and Mr Cheng has pledged that the government would continue to roll out more ESD applications.

Mr Cheng explained: 'We have successfully developed the necessary infrastructure for conducting e-business, including telecommunications infrastructure, regulations and legislation, public key infrastructure and certification authorities. We will also review within this year the Electronic Transactions Ordinance enacted in early 2000 to ensure that our legal framework for e-business is up-to-date.'