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Policy solution. Budget | Digital Transformation Old wine and new bottle Hong Kong is far from a "smart city"

2022-02-27T00:41:22.897Z


Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced on Wednesday (February 23) the last "Budget" (hereinafter referred to as "Budget 22/23"), in which he proposed the establishment of "Digital Economy" in response to the needs of Hong Kong's digital economy transformation


Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced on Wednesday (February 23) the last "Budget" (hereinafter referred to as "Budget 22/23"), in which he proposed the establishment of a "Digital Economy Development Committee" in response to the needs of Hong Kong's digital economy transformation. "Wait.

I believe that the business, political, academic and general public are all happy to see Hong Kong's economy moving towards digitalization and becoming a "smart city", but it is not difficult to see the Hong Kong government's commitment to the "digital economy" by carefully examining the measures mentioned in the entire budget. The understanding is still superficial, and there is even the suspicion of "hybridizing" various policies and then "digitizing" them.

What is the real "digital economy" and "digital transformation"?

What is missing in Hong Kong?


On Wednesday, Financial Secretary Paul Chan read out the last Budget of his tenure.

(Information Services Department)

Five Digital Measures Four Old Wine New Bottles

On the topic of "digital (digital) transformation", Budget 22/23 mentions five substantive measures:

The first is the "Digital Economy Development Committee". Because digital tools can better understand the economy, improve efficiency, and stimulate innovation, experts, scholars, elites, and officials have been brought together to form a committee to "accelerate the digital economy."

The second item is "Electronic Consumer Coupon." The 5,000-yuan electronic consumer coupon that was implemented last year has been increased to 10,000 yuan, in order to "further consolidate the habit of merchants and citizens to use electronic payment, and promote the development of the digital economy."

The third item is "promoting the digitization of government operations". A total of $600 million will be earmarked to conduct a comprehensive e-government audit in the next three years to review the progress of government digitization and help improve the efficiency of public services through technological solutions.

The fourth item is "smart port", which includes the establishment of a digital system to improve port efficiency and reduce cargo handling time and costs.

The fifth item is "Business Data Connect". The HKMA will study the introduction of more business data sources to expand the functions of the Business Data Connect. The Government will also study allowing financial institutions to authorize government departments to obtain their data and prioritize the processing of data that will help small and medium-sized enterprises. Data for applying for financial services.

Chan Wing-yin (left), Senior Research Fellow of the United Hong Kong Foundation, believes that the establishment of a committee is "very necessary" in today's I&T ecosystem in Hong Kong.

(Source: Photo by Yu Junliang)

Committees are only the basic steps

It is worth noting that, of the five measures, except for the “establishment of committees”, the others are all improvements to existing projects in the past.

As for the measure of "establishing a committee", there have been many doubts in the community, criticizing the authorities for a "bureaucratic operation" that seems to be "doing for the sake of doing".

In fact, the "committee system" has long been riddled with holes. For example, an in-depth report in "Hong Kong 01" reviewed the effectiveness of 510 advisory and statutory bodies, and concluded that the system was ineffective and lacked governance effectiveness.

However, Chen Yingyin, a senior researcher at the United Hong Kong Foundation, believes that in today's innovation and technology ecosystem in Hong Kong, the establishment of the "Digital Economy Development Committee" is necessary.

She explained that every industry needs digital transformation, and the committee facilitates coordination and cooperation between industries. Moreover, due to the lack of a systematic and forward-looking digital transformation plan in Hong Kong, there is little “Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint 2.0” that is highly relevant. It has been reviewed and updated, so it is even more necessary for the committee to take the lead in formulating a digital transformation blueprint.

For example, the European Commission has announced the European Digital Finance Pakcage, the first of which is the Digital Finance Strategy.

However, Chen Yingyin also emphasized that the specific effectiveness of the Digital Economy Development Committee also depends on the specific implementation. The composition of the committee is very important, and it is necessary to include stakeholders from diverse industries as much as possible, especially emerging industries.

The cooperation between government, industry, academia and research can certainly help the transformation, but compared with more concrete measures that can effectively promote change, such as the electronic consumer coupons distributed last year, more than 3 million new electronic payment accounts and tens of thousands of merchants have been added. To a certain extent, the application of electronic payment can be popularized and the digital transformation of the retail economy can be accelerated. The "commission" seems to be only a basic step. Judging from the government's often "anticlimactic" track record, it is indeed worrying that it is difficult to follow.

Many cities in the mainland have also distributed consumer coupons in the form of digital renminbi.

(File photo: Xinhua News Agency)

Electronic consumer vouchers should have a CBDC model

In fact, Hong Kong still has a lot of work to be done before the real digital transformation.

Taking electronic consumer coupons as an example, Chen Maobo said that he will continue to use the model of cooperation with electronic payment operators last year for distribution. The latest form of payment, governments and central banks around the world are enthusiastically exploring "central bank digital currency" (CBDC).

Chen Yingyin suggested that the government can continue to use the original distribution model and increase the distribution model of CBDC for citizens to choose.

She explained that because CBDC has the characteristics of programmable, offline payment, and multiple carriers, it can not only shorten the administrative preparation time, but also give citizens greater freedom of consumption and reduce complaints.

In fact, as early as the end of 2019, the mainland has launched the pilot of retail CBDC, and 11 mainland cities including Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Hangzhou have precedents of distributing consumer coupons through digital RMB wallets.

At the just-concluded Beijing Winter Olympics, there were already 359,000 digital renminbi application scenarios.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is leading the world in the research and development of CBDC. In terms of retail CBDC, it released a technical white paper last year. It can be seen that there is no insurmountable technical difficulty in distributing consumer coupons with CBDC. "Take the scriptures".

Chen Yingyin believes that the promotion of CBDC is not only about consumer coupons, but also about optimizing Hong Kong’s financial infrastructure and transforming it into a digital financial center. Products, private institutions have the opportunity to innovate, build application scenarios, and realize the transformation and upgrading of financial technology.” She emphasized that the European Union and the United States have started public discussions on central bank digital currency, and Hong Kong should not lag behind as an international financial center.

The various carriers of the central bank's digital currency can reduce the digital divide in the popularization of electronic payment.

(File photo: Xinhua News Agency)

Is Electronic Documents Smart Government?

The third measure of Chen Maobo's "digitization" is to set aside 600 million yuan to "further digitize" government operations.

It is not yet known what specific measures will be taken, but the results of the internal digital transformation of the Hong Kong government in the past are equally worrying.

It is undeniable that the SAR government has started digital transformation very early.

As early as the "Digital 21 Information Technology Strategy" in 2001, the Hong Kong government has proposed the construction of "e-government", and later in the 2014 update, it promised to strengthen "cross-platform government services", so that the public can use any device anytime, anywhere. and platform to obtain information and use services.

At the same time, the government has also continuously updated the goals of service digitalization. For example, in the "Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint" and "Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint 2.0" in 2017 and 2020, the Hong Kong government's goal has been upgraded from "e-government" to "smart government" .

However, even though the slogan of "Smart Government" has been chanted for more than five years, the SAR government is obviously still at the stage of "e-government" - that is, the electronic administration of administrative affairs that used to require paper documents is replaced by filling out forms and submitting information online. , e-mail processing, etc.

However, the so-called "smart government" should optimize decision-making or optimize the government's operational efficiency in handling people's livelihood affairs through monitoring, collecting daily data, and using big data and artificial intelligence for data analysis.

Adjacent Shenzhen has such a "smart government".

In 2020, at the "Global Smart City Conference" known as the "Smart City Oscar", Shenzhen Futian District won the "Enabling Technologies Award".

Yu Jie, director of the Futian District Government Service Data Administration, Shenzhen, introduced the artificial intelligence "traffic brain" built by the Futian District Government in the central area of ​​Shenzhen. Travel time per person decreased by 10%, while the traffic congestion index fell by 3.2%.

It is said that the command and distribution system in Futian District received more than 900,000 problem incidents throughout the year, 98% of which can achieve intelligent classification and automatic distribution, which greatly improves the efficiency of government affairs.

Chen Yingyin said frankly that the "electronicization" of paper materials is only an "entry-level electronic measure", and the application of big data and artificial intelligence is a long-term and important transformation direction.

She pointed out that there are many examples of the use of artificial intelligence in government operations. The "Business Information Link" in cooperation with the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) uses blockchain and artificial intelligence technology to help small and medium-sized enterprises get loans quickly. It is also found that the current local artificial intelligence is "research level", "it requires a lot of calculations, experiments and modeling to launch a reliable and easy-to-use system, and it will take time."

In December 2017, the government announced the "Smart City Blueprint", explaining the development direction of Hong Kong's smart city.

(File photo/Photo by Liang Pengwei)

What is the transformation of opening and closing?

Of course, the research and development of artificial intelligence not only requires time, but also "data".

At the forum of the conference, Shan Zhiguang, Director of Industry and Informatization of the State Information Center, described the fundamental role of data in building a smart city: "Data is information, information is knowledge, and knowledge is wisdom. ”

However, data openness in Hong Kong is still very backward, especially in terms of openness, and it is difficult to connect with modern artificial intelligence applications.

The Internet Society of Hong Kong launched the "Hong Kong Open Data Index" program and released a research report "Hong Kong Open Data Index 2019/2020" in May 2020.

According to the statistics of the report, Hong Kong government data can basically be downloaded publicly, but most of them lack the application programming interface (API).

In the latest "Hong Kong Openness Index 2021/2022", there are still eight categories of data with API ratings of "Poor" among the 16 categories of data, only the API openness of "Health" category is "Good", and the rest are "medium".

What is an API?

Simply put, it is a data port. When a third-party application accesses the data port, it can automatically obtain or update data.

For some real-time changing data, such as weather temperature and traffic conditions, accessing the API will be more accurate and efficient.

The lack of an API means that data acquisition cannot be "automated", and artificial intelligence algorithms that rely heavily on data foundations have become "a smart woman can't cook without rice."

Report evaluation: "API has higher requirements on the standardization and automation of data management. Some old management systems need to be fully updated before they can provide API services, which involves additional costs and requires a long period of time, and the threshold for users is relatively high. Therefore, in the early stage of launching open data, governments in many regions would prefer to release data by providing download links. Even so, the existence of an effective API symbolizes an efficient data management and sharing system, which is an important tool for modern governments to improve digital tubes. Governance is a must; Hong Kong's low score on this indicator shows that it is still far from the aspirations of a 'smart city'."

In contrast, the Shenzhen Futian District Government has worked very hard on "data".

The local government has established a "Smart City Governance Center", which includes five platforms: early warning and monitoring, comprehensive governance, decision support, public services, and basic technology.

The early warning and monitoring platform can use monitoring probes and sensors to collect public data in real time; the comprehensive governance platform can integrate and standardize the data of various departments, breaking the "separate government"; the basic technology platform has built a data service center, which can provide government affairs data upon application. API for real-time data sharing.

In 2020, the Internet Society of Hong Kong launched the "Hong Kong Open Data Index" program to introduce international open data standards and experience.

(Photo by Ouyang Dehao)

Stop Stopping at the Digital Infrastructure Level

"The development of the digital economy is a process from shallow to deep. The first stage is to build infrastructure, the second stage is to explore application scenarios, and then to promote to consumers and merchants. Where is Hong Kong now? I think more It is from the first stage to the second stage here." Chen Yingyin said, "Most of them stay at the level of 'infrastructure' now, and the Hong Kong government needs to work harder on application scenarios."

Looking back at the Budgets of the current government over the years, it is not difficult to see that the government attaches great importance to I&T and its resources are inclined.

However, why have so many funds been established, so many capital injections have been provided, and so many plans have been designed, why is Hong Kong's innovation and technology still unpopular?

In fact, in terms of the long-term crux of "difficulty in implementing scientific research results", Hong Kong's innovation and technology companies lack much more than money.

From this perspective, the government's digital transformation with a budget of 600 million yuan in the next three years is a good opportunity for local scientific research to break the bottleneck.

The government can play a bigger role in assisting local scientific research to explore application scenarios and assist in the commercialization of scientific research.

For example, according to media reports, the government of Futian District, Shenzhen found that local AI companies would encounter two major difficulties in the process of starting a business: lack of data and application scenarios.

As a result, the Futian government, in conjunction with the Municipal Service Data Administration, established an artificial intelligence application innovation center (also known as AI-HUB(SZ)), which was also linked to the "Futian District Government Affairs Data Open Innovation Lab".

In response to the lack of data, the Futian government, based on the above-mentioned "Smart City Governance Center", has created a "sandbox" for AI application development verification and testing that integrates government data openness, testing environment, and resource docking.

AI companies in need can apply to join, and use the sandbox data to optimize and test AI applications, and the government will issue relevant test reports for inquiries by institutions in need.

Huang Jinhui emphasized the importance of local science and technology products to smart cities.

Must take responsibility for digital transformation

In response to the lack of application scenarios, the Futian government regularly collects and publishes a "requirement list" in the laboratory. If local companies find that their own products can meet the needs, they can "reveal the list" and carry out short-term cooperation with the government.

The government announced that the demand mainly revolves around public services in the area, covering ten fields of medical care, education, elderly care, transportation, water affairs, urban management, emergency response, government affairs, and public security.

For example, in the second phase of the demand list, there is the "AI + pension" project, inviting enterprises to experiment with companion robots, medical companion robots, and providing day care and other services, and promises that the government can provide relevant data and provide elderly associations as a scenario pilot.

In this way, the government can not only solve the pain points of scientific research for I&T companies, but also attract local I&T companies to participate in the construction of smart cities, which can be described as a "win-win".

"In the entire process of technological transformation and digital transformation, the government should take the lead." Chen Ying Yin said.

"Including, taking the lead in promoting industrial upgrading, taking the lead in applying some cutting-edge technologies for system upgrade, etc." Huang Jinhui, associate dean (foreign affairs) of the School of Engineering, Chinese University of Hong Kong, also said in an interview with "Hong Kong 01" earlier that smart city construction requires "personality" "localization" and "localization": "It is necessary to refer to the life style of citizens and use personalized products to adapt to local people."

Digital transformation, building a smart city, and building an international innovation and technology center can be "three goals" or "the same thing".

The key is whether the SAR government, as a government administrator, has the vision of "going high and looking far ahead", a "systematic and comprehensive" layout, and the courage to break the "conformity".

The authorities can follow the example of the "stones of other mountains" and establish an open and transparent mechanism to connect the needs of the government with local scientific research laboratories and innovation and technology enterprises, so as to form a good interaction between "government-industry-university-research institutes".

While optimizing the local I&T ecosystem, it will also help Hong Kong society move towards true digital transformation.

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2022-02-27

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