Report on the work of Create Hong Kong and Hong Kong Design Centre
Promoting cross-territorial collaboration and participation in the Belt and Road Initiative
Mr CHAN Chun-ying enquired about, among the projects and applications approved under the CreateSmart Initiative (“CSI”) and the Film Development Fund (“FDF”) over the past three years, how much of the approved funding was allocated for promoting cross-territorial collaboration and participation in the Belt and Road (“B&R”) Initiative. PS(CCI) said that while there was breakdown of CSI and FDF fundings for exchange programmes with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area (“Greater Bay Area”), other Mainland cities or B&R countries, it was practically difficult to quantify the total amount that had been spent on promoting cross-territorial collaboration and participation in the B&R Initiative as there were regional or international events organized in Hong Kong with a considerable number of participants from outside Hong Kong.
Projects organized or sponsored by CreateHK
As regards participants’ satisfaction level towards the projects organized or sponsored by CreateHK between 2009 and 2018, Mr CHAN Chun-ying noted that the statistics provided by the Administration were based on 100 000 responses received during the period. Mr CHAN commented that the number of participants in the events far exceeded the number of responses received. He asked how the Administration collected the views. Head, CreateHK said that for events such as seminars, talks or workshops that were funded by CSI, applicants were required to collect feedback from all participants. As for other mass events such as exhibitions, responses would be collected from a sample of participants.
E-Government
Electronic identity
Mr CHAN Chun-ying asked if e-ID could be used for payment of Government fees and charges through electronic means. US for IT responded that e-payment systems could be implemented even without the introduction of e-ID. He added that a few e-wallet services had been rolled out and the Administration would facilitate the use of these services for payment of Government services and various fees and charges.
Next Generation Government Cloud Infrastructure
Mr CHAN Chun-ying noted that the Administration planned to build the Next Generation Government Cloud Infrastructure (“Next Generation GovCloud”) which would, among other functions, support Bureaux and Departments (“B/Ds”) in the development of information technology (“IT”) applications and would enable B/Ds to shorten development time of new IT services by at least 20%. He queried how the Next Generation GovCloud could achieve the target.
GCIO said that the Next Generation GovCloud would essentially be a “Private Cloud”, but it would utilize certain “Public Cloud” services, which were easier to procure, install and use, to speed up IT application development. Furthermore, GCIO said that the Administration would develop common services (e.g. common authentication, payment gateway services, etc.) on the Next Generation GovCloud. This would enable B/Ds to implement new IT services without having to duplicate efforts and resources in building common components. This would also help shorten the system development time.
Adoption of blockchain technology
Mr CHAN Chun-ying asked for an update on the Administration’s adoption of blockchain technology. US for IT said that the Administration would implement some pilot projects adopting blockchain technology. Further details on the pilot projects would be announced later this year.