Information technology industry experts in Hong Kong have criticized government plans to set up a new HK$560 million electronic government Internet portal to replace the current system run by a unit of Hutchison Whampoa.
ESD Life Services was awarded a government contract to operate the current e-government portal, ESD Life, in 2001. The contract expires in 2008.
Apart from the service fees, ESD Life also receives HK$5.50 per transaction from users, the source said. The Internet site allows users to pay government and private utilities bills online, and also offers booking services for theater and train tickets.
"Under the ESD system, the cost to taxpayers is about HK$1 million a month, which will increase to over HK$9 million under the new system," the source said. The government is currently seeking HK$170 million in first phase funding from the Legislative Council. "The government's rationale for replacing the ESD system is not clear," he said. "ESD Life has been given very favorable reviews by the government ever since it started."
Plans to set up the new Web site form part of new policies unveiled by government chief information officer Howard Dickson last year to improve electronic government services in the city.
However, the Information and Software Industry Association, a leading trade body, said the new policies represent a radical shift from the previous government stance.
"The new strategy presented a totally different approach for e-government when compared with the plan launched in 2001 through a public- private-partnership," association chairman Aldous Ng wrote in a submission to the Legislative Council this month.
The first stage in the plan for the new portal calls for "no private partner involvement," Ng said. "The proposed new strategy sends a very confusing signal to the commercial sector that the government is not clear about its position towards private sector participation in the delivery of e-government services."
The government risks "being a competing alternative to its [private- sector] partners. We are concerned that the new strategy will hinder the interest of the private sector to invest in e-government services."
Quelle: The Standard, 13.02.2006
