The Hong Kong government has acted positively to strengthen the community's ability to exploit the digital environment, a senior IT official said Tuesday.

"Digital technologies become firmly embedded in our daily affairs, enabling IT-empowered people to lead more productive and rewarding lives," the Director of Information Technology Services Alan Wong Chi-kong said at a press conference.

At present, a substantial proportion of the local population in Hong Kong already uses the Internet on a regular basis, he said. According to the household survey conducted in the second quarter of 2001, 60.6 percent of our households have installed personal computers, and 48.7 percent of households are connected to the Internet.

However, at the same time, people who lack access to computers and the Internet and those who do not have IT skills and knowledge become less and less capable of participating in the economy of a society that is increasingly technology dependent.

The government is fully aware of the situation and is determined to build a digitally inclusive society in Hong Kong through various measures.

In the past few years, the government has invested some HK$2.2 billion (US$282 million) in measures and activities to strengthen the community's ability to exploit opportunities in the digital world. Significant progress in raising IT awareness and promoting the use of IT in the community has been made, Wong said.

Wong stressed that the government would continue to implement these measures with vigor, monitor IT adoption in Hong Kong through annual IT penetration surveys and explore more opportunities to promote the wider use of IT in the community.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2002)