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SCMP Reporter

A Hong Kong Software Industry Information Centre (SIIC) opened yesterday to help local software developers with research and marketing.

  SIIC director K T Yung said the objective of the centre, which is a Web site (http://itweb.it.hkpc.org/ siic), was to give software companies information on market trends and an up-to-date database.

  'The software industry has been too fragmented,' he said.

  'There is only a small community and that is difficult to expand without information.'    The Hong Kong Productivity Council approved the setting up of the centre last year after studying a consultancy report which outlined problems facing the software industry in the territory.

  The centre first began publishing newsletters in September and will now post them on-line.

  The Web site also provides market and government tender information to members for a $1,000 annual subscription fee.

  Anyone on the Internet can access the site, but only members will be able to tap certain resources by using a password.

  One of these is a search engine that finds published information by publication dates or keywords and then provides a summary.

  Mr Yung said many of the articles and research reports could not be posted on the Web because of copyright restrictions, so the productivity council would have a library where members could read this material.

  'We will have a database on major tenders issued by the Government and although many local software companies may be too small to bid, at least they can target the type of market,' Mr Yung said.

  'One of the problems for Hong Kong's software industry is that the Government does not give preference to smaller companies.

  'The SIIC would provide a database to help software companies find each other for partnerships or possible mergers and acquisitions.'   Mr Yung said the database would also give the productivity council a tally of the number of software companies in the territory, giving it a better chance to promote the industry and eventually to form an association.

  The SIIC plans to conduct studies of various markets, including the software needs of import/export businesses, restaurants and retailers.

  'We would make a full report available free to members and sell copies to non-members,' Mr Yung said.

  'There are a lot of opportunities even for small software companies, but many are behind on information. We designed the SIIC to help these companies. We also plan to run seminars on important issues such as funding mechanisms for software companies in the territory.' 



Software centre launched