Swireber-Port is reality check

Wait for it. They are coming for sure, the world's first generation of cyber cops on the prowl for Cyber-Port tenants who lied when they signed their tenancy agreements.

It will be the only sure way of guaranteeing that Cyber-Port fulfills its mission to make Hong Kong a high-technology hub. We cannot have people moving in only for cheap rents.

There is a problem, however, in attracting the right sort of tenants. A consultant's report issued after (not before) the Government launched Cyber-Port pointed out that many target occupants would have little use for these out-of-the-way premises in Pokfulam.

Shared laboratory facilities were not much of a draw. The equipment, they said, could not really be purpose specific to their requirements, it would soon be obsolete and sharing facilities would make industrial espionage a danger. They also had little use for a Cyber-Port library.

There is this thing called the Internet, you see. It rather makes bundles of paper pointless. So you will appreciate that legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing was on the right track this week when she asked if the Government can be confident that it will get the tenants it wants rather than just people setting up retail stations.

Oh yes, said the responsible government functionary, Annie Tam Kam-lan, whose official title is a bit too long to fit in a column that holds only 700 words.

'The preliminary proposals from the companies indicated that their businesses are high-tech application services and content creation. Of course, there are some companies which are providing some support-related services but it is still too early to see what businesses they will actually be doing,' she said.