Spearheaded by the Education Department, the portal is a Government initiative. Hong Kong Education City aims at promoting quality education and fostering a culture of information technology for lifelong learning. The scheme will see the establishment of a 'broadband education network' to provide increased Internet and intranet connectivity to local schools and the collation of accessible educational resources for students, teachers and parents.
The site has been given a two- year grant by the Quality Education Fund totalling $31.8 million. Its proponents forecast that the site will later become self-financing.
While there are sites that provide a wealth of resources on information technology and education, HKeducationCITY.net will bring all these resources together under one comprehensive search engine.
It is expected to attract about 100,000 hits a day, rising to 500,000 in a year's time.
To encourage schools to secure Internet connections, the Education Department is providing each school $44,000 annually.
Since July, the Education Department has been encouraging the site's use through a number of IT companies that have been introducing the technology to primary and secondary schools. Since then, about 600 schools have adopted broadband networks.