Hong Kong rural leaders seek tech help to improve villagers’ living conditions

Hong Kong’s rural leaders want to capitalise on the expansion of fibre optic networks to villages to create a “smart countryside”.

Among their suggestions are smart traffic lights to avoid congestion and reduce accidents, a hill fire detection and monitoring system, and online doctor consultations.

Leaders of the Heung Yee Kuk, a government-recognised body that represents the interests of rural villagers, said they believed the ideas could be put into practice with the completion of a HK$770 million (US$99 million) government scheme to subsidise network operators to build fibre-based networks in some 235 remote villages in the New Territories and outlying islands by next year.

“It is not rocket science,” said Dr Yau Wing-kwong, a kuk member and the convenor of the “smart countryside” study. “The technology is already there. The problem now is that fibre optic internet is not available in many villages. It is not for the local villagers only. It can also benefit holidaymakers going to spend leisure time in the countryside.”

The ideas were recently presented to the Information and Technology Bureau as well as Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

Yau also said the kuk was earmarking some roads in the New Territories for a pilot scheme to install a smart traffic light system. Traffic detectors built at opposite ends of a section of road would use video analytics to detect, track and count passing cars and compute vehicle queue lengths for each side. The duration of green signals is adjusted on a real-time basis to reduce overall delays.

Yau also spoke in favour of using information technology to help fight hill fires.