Concern on the Governments reorganization of the bureaus that seemed to reflect a diminishing recognition of the importance of IT'

IT Voice wrote a letter to Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive, stating our concern on the reorganization of the bureau and the diminishing recognition of the importance of IT

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Mr. Donald Tsang

Chief Executive

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government

Government House, Hong Kong

5 June 2007

Dear Mr. Tsang,

Concern on the Government’s reorganization of the bureaus that seemed to reflect a diminishing recognition of the importance of Information Technology

The six members of IT Voice, who currently are also members of the Election Committee, would like to express our concern on the reorganization of the government bureau which tends to reflect the Government’s diminishing attention on the role of Information Technology in the economic development of Hong Kong.

In our position paper presented in March 2007 to you when you were running in the Chief Executive election, IT Voice had emphasized that the key to success of Hong Kong as an international city, financial centre and a land of innovations, it is vital to have an “ICT-minded” government that recognizes the importance and the pivotal role of ICT in the knowledge driven economy. We must integrate ICT smartly into every facet of public policy and tackle social challenges in areas such as health, education, environmental protection, food safety, ageing and economy transformation, etc. by exploiting benefits of advanced ubiquitous technologies. We see such a strong vision requiring a strategic organization with priority putting on IT. While we see the Government dropping “IT” from the name of the bureau, there is no institutional arrangement and explicit mission statement that can guarantee our society could benefit from IT with a proper priority.

So when the Government argue that the removal of “information technology” from the naming of the “Commerce and Economic Development Bureau” is just a naming issue, we cannot find a good reason to be convinced. Moreover, from our experience with the previous organizational changes from ITSB to CITB, and now dropping IT totally from the naming of the strategy bureau, the diminishing importance of IT in the Government's regards is showing in every word.

We are not viewing this matter from a narrow interest of the IT sector. Our worry is that while we subscribe to the Government's vision to move Hong Kong towards a knowledge based economy, we are seeing diminishing priority is put on this direction. To the interest of the different sectors of Hong Kong and the general public's interest, we raise this grave concern for your consideration.

Besides restoring the naming of the new Bureau to include “Information Technology”, we also like to see the Government's initiative to strategically position IT as a supporting pillar industry to the Hong Kong economy.

We are open to discuss this with you face to face should you found it necessary. If you need to contact us, please email to itvoice@itvoice.hk or phone S.C. Leung 9173-5967.

Regards,

The IT Voice Team

Edmon Chung edmon@itvoice.hk

Francis Fong francis@itvoice.hk

S.C. Leung sc@itvoice.hk

Chester Soong chester@itvoice.hk

Lento Yip lento@itvoice.hk

Sang Young sang@itvoice.hk

Copies to:

Mr Stephen Lam, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs,

Government Secretariat, 3rd Floor, Main Wing,

Central Government Office, Lower Albert Road, Hong Kong

and

Mr Joseph Wong, Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology,

Government Secretariat,

Central Government Office, Lower Albert Road, Hong Kong