Internet communications company Uunet has united with the South China Morning Post to launch the Uunet/SCMP Business Web Sites of the Year Awards, to promote Internet usage among local companies.
Simon Phoon, managing director of Uunet, the SAR Internet subsidiary of United States telecommunications giant MCI WorldCom, said the Internet had become an important competitive tool for businesses.
It had made companies more competitive by allowing them to conduct business 24 hours a day, lowering communication costs and boosting efficiency through timely usage of information, he said.
The four best locally developed Web sites will be chosen from the corporate, financial services, public sector and small and medium-sized enterprises categories.
The judging panel will be chaired by James Liu, chief executive of the Hong Kong Industrial Technology Centre.
He said the importance of the Internet to businesses had grown to the extent that they had become inseparable.
'The Internet is business,' he said.