Hong Kong IT sector gloomy as tech bureau slips from view
When the Information Technology and Broadcast Bureau was disbanded in 2002, Charles Mok joined protesting colleagues to demand it be restored. Thirteen years on, he is still pursuing this goal.
When the Information Technology and Broadcast Bureau was disbanded in 2002, Charles Mok joined protesting colleagues to demand it be restored.
Thirteen years on, and now a lawmaker representing the IT sector, he is still pursuing this goal. It now looks a little further out of reach, with the Finance Committee yesterday failing to vote on a HK$35 million funding request to set up a new innovation and technology bureau.
With a resolution to establish the bureau set to expire at the end of March, the Finance Committee funding approval process would have to start all over again.
And Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying will face a tough choice over whether to put forward the proposal again, since his current term ends in about two years and any request is likely to be met with more filibustering by pan-democrats.
Mok was pessimistic, saying: "The political environment may be even less favourable for another attempt in the future because of the deteriorating relationship between the government and the legislature.
"Not to mention that we don't know who the next chief executive will be - and whether they will support an IT bureau."
Leung promised in his 2012 election manifesto to set up an IT bureau to facilitate development of the industry. But his plan - which also includes a culture bureau and more political appointees - has failed because of filibustering by the pan-democrats.
Leung revived the idea in his policy address last year and the plan went through the legislative procedures. Finance Committee approval was the final hurdle.
Under the proposal, the existing Office of the Government Chief Information Officer and the Innovation and Technology Commission - which promote development of information technology and develop and implement policies to support IT, respectively - would be moved to the new bureau. Some questioned why CreateHK and the Intellectual Property Department would not be part of the new bureau. Commerce minister Greg So Kam-leung said the structure of the new bureau could be revised once it was established.
The ITBB was set up to coordinate IT and broadcasting policies in 1998 by the city's first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, at the height of the dot-com boom. But Tung incorporated the ITBB into the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau when he rolled out the principal officials accountability system in 2002.
Concerns grew over the government's priorities when Tung's successor, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, decided to remove the word "technology" from the bureau's name under another restructure in 2007, when the existing Commerce and Economic Development Bureau was set up.
"Policymaking on new initiatives was more decisive and efficient in the four years when the ITBB was there," Mok said. "The contrast is obvious after the ITBB - there were not many new initiatives in recent years and many policies have been delayed."
They included the Science and Technology Parks in Sha Tin, Cyberport in Southern District and the Applied Science and Technology Research Institute.
"How can you expect a department head at the civil servant directorate grade to bargain with a bureau chief for resources?" Mok asked, adding that support was needed to develop IT from other policy areas - with the coordination of an IT minister.
Kenneth Kwok Ka-chun, 35, founder of digital strategy firm Beehive, said the city had fallen behind its neighbours in IT as it did not have a bureau to drive policy. "A new bureau might not bring change immediately, but at least it would breathe new life into the industry," he said.
