To build Hong Kong into a regional hub for innovation, technology and communications, the government is committed to providing the educational and infrastructural framework needed to bridge the digital divide and to make the Internet as accessible for grandparents and unskilled laborers as it is for students and business professionals, Tsang said.

"Only then can we claim to be a cyber city in the cyber century, " Tsang told a dinner for ITU ministers, who are participating in ITU TELECOM Asia 2000, which opened in Hong Kong Sunday.

As a small, open economy, Hong Kong has thrived on interaction with the rest of the world, Tsang said. "We are a free economy, the embodiment of free trade and an open market. We are a free society, underpinned by the rule of law upheld by an independent judiciary."

"We also understand that the fast, free and unfettered flow of news, views and information is a 'must have' for success now and in the future," he said.

"Our business men and women, our entrepreneurs and academics must have unhampered and instant access to information if they are to compete in the global village," he stressed.

(Xinhua 12/04/2000)