A Consumer Council recommendation for a new branch to handle the rapidly-developing broadcasting and telecommunications industries is set to be rejected.
Officials have decided there is no justification for another branch, but will review the decision in 1998.
The new branch was a major recommendation of the consumer watchdog's report on the broadcasting industry released in January.
As the technologies for delivering broadcast programmes and telecommunications signals converge, the council believed a new policy framework would improve Hong Kong's position on the information superhighway.
But the Government was inclined not to combine the two subjects, a source said.
Technology was not advanced enough to justify a reorganisation of the bureaucracy.