Digital economy. Way Out｜Return to People-Oriented Promote Digital Economy Transformation｜01 Weekly

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Written by: Huang Shunyang

2021-05-10 20:00

Last update date: 2021-05-10 20:00

As mentioned in the previous article, the SAR government seems to have done a lot of infrastructure construction for smart cities, but the popularity and application of digitalization in society is still very limited, and the public generally distrust the digital facilities and applications led by the government, which will transform the digital economy Stagnant.

In the end, where is the problem, and how should Hong Kong promote a new chapter in the digital economy?

Hong Kong's Digital Economy Development Series Report II No. 2

To undertake the above:

Digital Economy.

Dilemma | "Information Revolution" swept the world, why is Hong Kong stagnating?

The crux and the way out

"The promotion of the digital economy should have been 13 years ago, not today." Chongming Chow, a lecturer in the Department of Applied Social Sciences of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, pointed out that from the early 1990s to the millennium, there have been many IT revolutions. Bringing the popularization of the Internet and smartphones is a good time for Hong Kong society to develop the digital economy. "The computer Internet in 1990; the office revolution in 2000 (replacement of administrative work with computers) and the popularization of 3G (third-generation mobile communications). Technology); the emergence of Facebook in 2004; the launch of the first iPhone in 2007, deepening the relationship between globalization, the Internet and the economy into daily life.” Zou Chongming continued, “but (the Hong Kong government) until 2015 (Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau) The Greater Bay Area has only begun to "strengthen", and now that it has been forced to develop (digital economy) by the epidemic, it has never done anything before."

Zou Chongming, a lecturer in the Department of Applied Social Sciences of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, should promote the index economy 13 years ago, not today.

Looking through the data, it was in the 1990s that digital technology quickly spilled over from the information industry. Information and knowledge gradually replaced capital and human technology in the industrial economy era and became new production factors. At that time, the Hong Kong government also realized the importance of information technology. In order to promote the development of digital technology and promote the transformation of society into a "knowledge-based economy", the knowledge-based economy is the embryonic form of the digital economy—all walks of life need a certain foundation of information and knowledge in order to promote the "digitalization of industries" and "industry digitization". Digital Industry".

The Cyberport and the Science Park, which currently have mixed reviews, are all based on the "handwriting" of the Tung Chee-hwa government.

Hong Kong had a comprehensive transformation plan

Zou Chongming pointed out that the "The Competitive Advantage of Nations" (The Competitive Advantage of Nations) proposed by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter in 1990 focuses on state participation, state investment in scientific research, development of industrial clusters and supporting facilities.

During his tenure, the Tung Chee-hwa government followed the diamond theory of national competitive advantage and proposed long-term strategies to help Hong Kong tide over the development bottleneck of the "de-industrialization" period, including advocating the development of innovative industries and the deployment of information technology industries and other "knowledge-based" industries. In 1997, Announced the construction of the Hong Kong Science Park in three phases over fifteen years.

The long-term strategy proposed by the government at that time was not only about the digitalization of the economy, but a comprehensive transformation plan.

For example, in the 1998 Policy Address, the Government established the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau, and issued the first "Digital 21" Information Technology Strategy (revised every three years). It proposed to focus on communications infrastructure, electronic transactions, and talent training. , Shaping the application market in four aspects to promote the application of information technology in the overall economy; in the same year, the Innovation and Technology Committee and the Application Technology Center were established to develop the overall strategy of combining innovation and technology with information technology.

In the following year, the government further clarified the relationship between the information society and the knowledge-based economy. On the one hand, it proposed the "Cyberport" project to support start-up companies. On the other hand, it promoted education reform to cultivate more knowledge-based talents and promote the society to become knowledge-based. Economic Transformation.

But unfortunately, the overall social development strategy of Tung Chee-hwa's period was unfortunately hit by the "Tech Internet blast" at the beginning of the millennium. When the Tsang Yam-quan government took office in 2005, the relevant policies were "overturned and restarted"-the government-led "national competitive advantage". Changed to "active non-intervention".

Zou Chongming described that the biggest change at that time was, "Tsang Yinquan changed the information technology development strategy that affected the overall development in the past to one of the six dominant industries "independent development", but the innovation industry is not an industry at all, but promotes the structural transformation of the entire industry. The tools of promotion fundamentally hinder the development process of the whole society."

The percentage of the "six major industries" (cultural and creative industries, education, private healthcare, testing and certification, environmental protection industries, and innovative technology) proposed by Tsang Yinquan in 2009 only slightly increased from 7.8% that year to 9%.

(Profile picture / Photo by Liang Pengwei)

The current transformation dilemma of Hong Kong's digital economy is precisely caused by this "contradictory" long-term policy thinking. Later, the Tsang Yinquan government emphasized the "positive non-intervention" policy, which intensified Hong Kong's "short-sightedness" and "comfortable with the status quo." The market atmosphere has made the structural monopoly of the market more serious. As a result, the government-invested digital technology construction has become out of touch with the market and society, leading to a long-term stagnation of social transformation.

From the 1960s to the 1970s, Hong Kong’s economic development has always benefited from the external environment. Zou Chongming pointed out, "The industrial development of the last century (Hong Kong) benefited from the Sino-US Cold War. In the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong manufacturers relied on The capital accumulated earlier has been invested in the mainland to set up factories and enjoy the economic dividends of reform and opening up, but it still relies on labor-intensive, low-tech manufacturing industries, rather than investing heavily in production technology and increasing production capacity."

After the millennium, the real estate market and the financial market were booming. The Hong Kong government changed to a free economic development policy, which made the market atmosphere of "short-term speculation" and focus on short-term profit "intensified"; later, SARS (SARS) severely hit Hong Kong's economy I thought that the Hong Kong government would take the opportunity to accelerate social transformation, but it coincided with the opening of "free travel" in the Mainland, and a large number of tourists poured into Hong Kong for consumption, driving the local economy to "resurrect".

However, the government has not formulated a comprehensive long-term development policy. The development dividends of the retail and tourism industries are still dominated by real estate and labor, and have not entered a knowledge-based economy where information and knowledge are the main production factors.

The most important thing is that under the "non-intervention" of the Hong Kong government, this "short-sighted" market atmosphere has made vested interests contented with the status quo. Since "you can make money while lying down", who will take the risk to promote the digital transformation and investment cycle Long in the innovation and technology industry?

The market is ``comfortable with the status quo'' and the transformation is slow

Liang Weifeng described that in the past, the Hong Kong government seldom introduced competition, which solidified the market and lost its development advantages. "Twenty-one years ago, the whole world looked at our Octopus "slobber", but this has happened in the past 21 years. What? (Octopus) means "nothing happened"." He continued, "In those days, the Octopus competed with HSBC (HSBC) Mondex, and the other was Visa Cash. Why does Octopus have the best technology at the time? It’s Mondex, but most of Octopus’s shareholders are transportation companies. This is its advantage. But it’s just a transportation card, it’s just for car use, and I never thought it would be developed into today’s electronic payment function. ."

The public transport payment market in Hong Kong has been dominated by Octopus for many years, and other payment tools have only been introduced in recent years.

(Photo by Li Zetong)

The success of Octopus relies on mass transportation. It can be said that it is a natural monopoly of the market by a large number of "basic users", but this has resulted in a "outstanding" market environment for many years.

Until recent years, MTR and public buses have gradually introduced the use of other payment tools, but before that, the "one-of-a-kind" Octopus has extended its application to all aspects of public services, from parking meters on the street to public hospitals. The medical expenses in Hong Kong have not only left the public with no choice, but also made the development of digital payment in Hong Kong lag behind others.

For example, a survey released by the Hong Kong Productivity Council in 2019 showed that Octopus and cash are still the mainstays of common payments by the public, with utilization rates of 99% and 97%, 53% of credit cards, and mobile payments (including Alipay and Alipay). Only 20% of citizens use electronic payment tools such as WeChat Pay.

This "monopoly" state has not improved until recent years. Public hospitals added the mobile payment function in 2019, and MTR station gates will not support AlipayHK to use QR Code to enter the gates until January this year, breaking the Octopus to pay for public transportation. The government, as the largest shareholder of the MTR, cannot shirk its responsibility.

"If there is no epidemic, our electronic payment will not develop so quickly. For example, foreign taxis do not accept electronic payments, but they can pay with credit cards, but we ask tourists to buy Octopus instead of paying taxi fees with credit cards." Liang Weifeng was helpless. Said, "The problem is to be content with the status quo, "Kim Hao Mi will continue to use", "Yes but ask for it" and there is even no need to change, but in fact "hea scare hea scare", the result is lost."

Leung Weifeng, lecturer and course director of the School of Professional and Continuing Education of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, believes that in the past, the Hong Kong government seldom introduced competition, which solidified the market and repeatedly lost its development advantages.

The outbreak of the epidemic is undoubtedly a "catalyst" for Hong Kong's implementation of the digital economy. The public can indeed see the rapid digitization of takeout and online shopping platforms, but how many of them are Hong Kong companies, or is the market already occupied by foreign companies?

Currently, Deliveroo, foodpanda, and Uber eats, the fast-growing takeaway platforms on the market, come from the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States respectively. According to statistics released by Measurable Ai in March, Deliveroo will replace Deliveroo in June 2020. Foodpanda has regained its position as the largest food delivery platform in Hong Kong. The market share of the two is 48% and 44% respectively. Uber eats maintains its 8% market share.

And when the two major food delivery platforms Deliveroo and foodpanda are fighting back and forth, why can no Hong Kong company participate in the competition?

Liang Weifeng pointed out that OpenRice, which is supposed to have 26,000 catering merchants and 6 million monthly active users, is actually the most advantageous to develop into the "leading" market. "This "yellow pages" (recommendation) website platform has a very complete set of The database has detailed information and information about each restaurant. In fact, it is the most qualified, but I don’t know why the transformation is so slow.” In fact, since 2017, OpenRice has gradually transformed from a dining guide to providing a one-stop shop for restaurants and users. It provides services such as reservations, payment, catering coupons, coupons, recruitment, long-distance queuing, and self-pickup of takeaways. However, its takeaway service has to wait until 2020 to start testing, but the market has already been marketed by Deliveroo and foodpanda by then. "Partitioning" can only launch fixed-point takeaway services without a fleet, and deliver them on foot within a limited range.

Liang Weifeng analyzed that this situation can be applied to other local innovation and technology companies. "Before no one could catch up, and it was discovered that the market was divided up late. Now it is too late to develop. "Every cake is divided among people." ."

Technological development is out of touch with daily life

In addition to the late transformation of the market "comfortable with the status quo", another problem is that Hong Kong's technological development is also out of touch with the people's daily life, so that the people do not understand or even trust technology, and it is even harder to talk about "digital transformation".

If you want to say that Hong Kong is the fastest transitioning industry to a digital economy, the financial industry is one of them.

According to data compiled by the Investment Promotion Agency of the Government, there are currently more than 600 financial technology companies in Hong Kong, 86% of traditional banks use financial technology, eight virtual banks and four virtual insurance companies; "Innovation and technology companies from the Mainland" have come to Hong Kong to list and give full play to Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center. However, these companies are out of the scope of financial applications. How much impact do they have on the daily lives of Hong Kong citizens?

In addition to using Hong Kong to raise funds, Mainland innovation and technology companies with "same shares but different rights" have helped Hong Kong's economy move toward digitalization, in addition to raising a wave of new shares in Hong Kong?

Kuaishou and other mainland innovation and technology companies come to Hong Kong to list, but it is not very helpful to promote the digitalization of Hong Kong's economy.

(Xinhua News Agency)

"Secondary listing is only a conversion of digital value. For example, before Kuaishou came to Hong Kong for the second listing, how many people knew about Hong Kong? How many people did they use?" Zou Chongming brought the problem back to Michael Porter's theory of competitive advantage, referring to the domestic market In the process of "reinventing" products and services, the transformation of the digital economy will inevitably be based on the needs of the local market. If the products brought by innovation and technology companies are "out of touch" with people's lives, they will not recruit and develop products that are suitable for Hong Kong. Local employment, people's daily life, and the development of information technology in Hong Kong have no impact." Nor does it help to build an ecosystem to promote the transformation of society into a digital economy.

This kind of "disconnection" also applies to Hong Kong’s innovation and technology parks. Hong Wenzheng, the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Emerging Technology Education Association, believes that the government’s park development is quite "off the ground." What?” And when the city’s technological development is trapped in the park and confined to the financial sector, it is separated from the lives of the citizens. Without understanding, the citizens will naturally doubt the technological logic behind the technology, and even refuse to use the government’s introduction. service.

The smart lampposts previously demolished by the demonstrators, the "Travel with Peace" and the integrated application "Smart Convenience" specially developed by the government for epidemic prevention have all been questioned as monitoring citizens. These are examples of these.

Hong Wenzheng, founding chairman of the Hong Kong Emerging Technology Education Association, believes that the development of the government park is quite "off the ground."

This result has led the government to continue to build "new infrastructure" in vain, clamoring to promote the transformation of the society into a smart city and digital economy, but the transformation policies and thinking cannot keep up with the market and the daily life of the citizens, and the knowledge-based economy is repeated. The mistakes.

It is conceivable that in the end, only the financial and professional service industries may rely on their own advantages to successfully transform.

If the government wants to return to the right track of the digital economy, the key lies in correcting the society's transformational thinking and rebuilding the relationship between the digital economy, the market and the citizens, and gradually cultivate the ecology so that the citizens are willing to move towards the "digital economy."

Opening up competition to "activate" the local market

Liang Weifeng and Hong Wenzheng, the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Emerging Technology Education Association, pointed out that in order to promote the digital economy, it is necessary to break the market’s mentality of "comforting with the status quo", and opening the market is undoubtedly a necessary move.

Hong Wenzheng uses the taxi market in Hong Kong as an example. The lack of competition in the taxi market has resulted in the lack of competition in the taxi market because the government has not issued additional urban taxi licenses. Before the outbreak of the epidemic, taxis had not yet popularized credit card payment, and the quality of service was often criticized.

In 2015, the taxi market was raging against Uber. The government not only failed to force the taxi market to improve service quality through "competition", it refused to recognize foreign competitors. In August of the same year, the police arrested seven Uber drivers and raided Uber. Hong Kong office.

In fact, external competition and the local market are not necessarily opposed to each other.

For example, Leung Weifeng said: "The Singapore government also understands that Uber is the general trend, so it is hard-handed and soft-handed. On the one hand, it legalizes and strengthens the control of online car-hailing. Drivers need to have two years of driving experience and take a 10-hour course. The cost of obtaining a relevant driving license to carry passengers is 140 Singapore dollars (about 805 Hong Kong dollars), plus 7% consumption tax; on the other hand, traditional taxi drivers are encouraged to use digital platforms such as online booking apps to increase their operating income.” This means The Singapore government promotes the "digital transformation" of the traditional taxi industry by introducing competition to balance the interests of both taxi drivers and Uber, improving the original service quality to compete with Uber; and taxi drivers can also switch to online taxi-hailing drivers. , No longer bound by taxi rental prices and high license fees. "In the end, taxi drivers, Uber, the government, and citizens are all winners."

The Hong Kong government did not use the emergence of Uber to force the taxi industry to improve service quality, but instead refused to recognize Uber as a competitor.

(Photo by Lin Zhendong)

Leung Weifeng suggested that on the one hand, the government can learn from the Singapore government's approach, introduce competition appropriately, "activate" the local market, and break the corporate mentality of "comfortable with the status quo". "Why can electronic payments in the Mainland succeed? It is because they have no burden and dare to Try and dare to do it.” He continued, “When citizens have more choices, they will naturally have more requirements, and these requirements will be transformed into strength, enabling local manufacturers and stakeholders to provide better Digital products and services will make the ecology better and better."

On the other hand, the government can build a platform on applied technology to encourage more people to use innovative thinking and develop more application scenarios for the digital economy. Liang Weifeng pointed out, "The success of Octopus and GoGoVan does not depend on how advanced the technology behind it is. It’s the success of its business model. One relies on public transportation, and the other uses a membership system and positioning system to “digitally transform” the previous model of calling the call center for light trucks, which has become the new “blue ocean”.”

GOGOVAN became the upstart of the emerging cargo logistics company.

(Profile picture)

"Like before, there was a period of time when Portuguese tarts were popular, and they sold Portuguese tarts on the streets for a while, and finally became a handicapped market. "Swarming" is our fault." Liang Weifeng criticized that the current government focuses too much on the development of innovation and technology and ignores the development and The application of science and technology, "It is not that everyone has the ability to develop big data, but to know how to use it, know the timing and scenarios of use, and know who to work with. To promote the digital economy, it is precisely to shape this market ecology that makes all walks of life All industries are preparing for digital transformation."

"Three Steps" Transition to a Digital Economy

In addition, if Hong Kong is to transform into a digital economy, it will undoubtedly need to rebuild the relationship between innovation and technology and the public, so that the public understands the technological logic behind the technology, so that they are willing to apply these technologies in different scenarios in their daily lives.

Leung Weifeng pointed out that the transformation of the digital economy involves a "three-step" development stage. The infrastructure of a digital city must be established first, and then different digital services and applications should be developed. The citizens are encouraged and educated to use digital services and cultivated "smart citizens." "(Smart people) can promote the transformation of society to a digital economy. "Even if the first two steps are invested heavily, but the last step is not achieved, it will be useless. Instead, the citizens will find ways to "avoid". The digital advantage of the city is Can’t perform normally."

The government's smart lamppost installation plan has brought privacy concerns.

(Profile picture / Photo by Luo Junhao)

Therefore, if the government wants to promote the digital economy and build a smart city, it must be "people-oriented" and educate citizens about the connotation of digital technology.

Hong Wenzheng pointed out that Singapore will employ retirees as docents in the science museum to educate citizens about science and technology. The local government will also hire different citizens as consultants to provide opinions and feedback to the authorities on the development of smart cities. "The government allows citizens to understand information technology. , And adjust policies based on their feedback to make digital applications more suitable for people’s lives."

In addition, another key to the digital economy lies in the "interaction" between technology and the public. If the government's technology application is still "closed door", the public will not be able to participate in it, and it will be even harder to believe and popularize technology applications.

Liang Weifeng cited the construction of a smart city in Singapore as an example. "In response to the aging trend, the local area first placed AEDs (automated external defibrillators) equipped with positioning systems in different places in the city, recruiting citizens to learn first aid related courses, and After obtaining a license, once the police receives news that an elderly person has fainted on the street, they will immediately use the app to notify nearby trainees, use the AED to extend the prime time of first aid, and reduce the number of ambulances lost to the injured due to delayed arrival."

The smart city operation model designed by the Singaporean authorities effectively combines digital technology and "smart citizens". It not only allows the trainees to know their rights and obligations, but also understands that the application of digital technology is not used to collect personal information and privacy. It is the thinking that the Hong Kong government needs to learn when promoting the digital economy-knowing how to use interactive processes to promote citizens to learn, apply technology, and cultivate more "smart citizens", thereby creating more social needs and making the market ecology better and better.

Singapore has achieved remarkable results in promoting innovation and technology and smart cities in recent years, and has won many international recognition.

(Profile picture)

However, Hong Kong society is now severely torn, and some citizens do not have a high degree of trust in the government. It will undoubtedly take longer for the government to popularize digital technology.

Zou Chongming suggested that instead of letting the government lead the construction of the digital economy, it is better for each citizen to invest according to their "needs." It is up to the public shareholders to determine the types of products to be developed, and then the government matching funds.” This makes the public understand that the technology they invest in is conducive to social development, and protects personal privacy, making the technology "services" provided by the government more "satisfactory." Land".

The ultimate goal is to improve social efficiency

When the government reverses the transformational thinking of the digital economy, rebuilds the relationship between digital technology and the market and citizens, and gradually promotes "digital industrialization" and "industrial digitalization", enterprises and citizens in smart cities will naturally generate a large amount of data and be Stored in data centers set up by enterprises and governments.

However, the value generated by one-way data is limited. Only by opening up the relationship between different economic activities and urban activities can we have a more comprehensive understanding of the needs of the economy and citizens, and improve the efficiency of society and the economy. The ultimate goal of developing the "digital economy".

To take a simple example, the traffic data collected by the Highways Department can be shared with logistics companies to a limited extent to improve the efficiency of logistics transportation.

In other words, to make data from "quantity change" to "qualitative change", it is necessary to open up the data held by the government and enterprises to a limited extent and expand the data application scenarios.

Wang Jing, Commercial Director of the Guiyang Big Data Exchange, believes that technological advancement has urged everyone to change, and change requires cross-industry data.

(Photo by Liang Pengwei)

As Li Xiaojia, the former chief executive of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, wrote on the Internet last year, "In the future data ocean, no matter how large the platform is, it is only an island. Only by sharing and merging data can the value be maximized." Derive data transaction, sharing and supervision issues.

The problem is that once data sharing and transactions are involved, citizens who produce data will naturally worry that their privacy will be illegally leaked and used, threatening their personal safety.

Therefore, the government must clearly delineate boundaries, formulate laws, and clarify data transactions and sharing processes, which are due to national security restrictions and cannot be shared or traded; which content is due to important considerations such as personal security or privacy. Protect it in the form of encryption, otherwise no transaction is allowed.

Li Xiaojia believes that the ownership of data itself may not be and cannot be traded. Data trading refers to the sharing and exchange of data usage rights. However, the specific pricing, charging and settlement standards need to be explored and explored by the market. It only provides policy framework guidance, rather than formulating "all-encompassing specific standards," so as to find the best development path unique to the data market.

In order to avoid the wild growth of the private data market and even harm the interests of citizens, Zou Chongming suggested that the data center can be managed by citizens empowered private groups to ensure that the data content shared and traded in it is in line with citizens' rights, thereby promoting the development of the digital economy.

When citizens have a clear understanding of the data they generate and will not disclose personal privacy during the transaction, it will be beneficial to the development of the city and the economy, and they will naturally be willing to move towards the digital economy with the government.

The above is excerpted from the 264th "Hong Kong 01" Weekly Report (May 10, 2021) "The "information revolution" sweeps the world. How does Hong Kong promote the "digital economy"?

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