Time to defrag Hong Kong's IT policies: Industry experts welcome approval of Innovation and Technology Bureau, offer ideas and direction
Experts call for more resources and hope 'piecemeal' IT policies will be better coordinated
Industry players are calling for more resources to develop applied technology following Finance Committee approval for the creation of the government's Innovation and Technology Bureau.
They also hope the new bureau can do a quick clean-up of what they called piecemeal policies on information technology, in addition to building a government-level connection with the mainland authorities to tap the market across the border.
Finance Committee approval came more than three years after Leung Chun-ying first floated the plan for a bureau in the 2012 chief executive election campaign.
Eric Yeung Chuen-sing, chairman of the Hong Kong Software Industry Association, said: "The new bureau should review and coordinate the technology measures now taken care of by various departments.
"We hope to see a one-stop bureau, instead of a part-time bureau," said Yeung, referring to the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, which now looks after IT policies, in addition to tourism, consumer protection, market competition and economic development.
"The Uber issue shows our laws cannot catch up with IT development. The new bureau can update the legal framework so that it can facilitate IT development, not obstruct it."
