LCQ18: Promoting digital policies to enhance service quality
Following is a question by the Hon Sunny Tan and a written reply by the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Professor Sun Dong, in the Legislative Council today (October 23):
Question:
In July this year, the Efficiency Office (EffO) and the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer merged to become the Digital Policy Office (DPO). Through the promotion of data-driven, people-centric and outcome-based digital policies, DPO enhances the efficiency and service quality of the Government to deliver better services to the citizens and the business sectors. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that the provision of consultancy services to bureaux and departments for business process re-engineering, organisation restructuring, performance measurement, knowledge management and change management is one of EffO's key non-digital policy areas of work, of the arrangements for such work following the establishment of DPO;
(2) whether it will consider having dedicated higher-level leadership to spearhead a sound top-level design, encompassing business process re-engineering, organisation restructuring and performance measurement, etc., so as to bring convenience and benefits to the people on a par with the Mainland's "one-stop handling" inter-departmental approach, thereby more effectively enhancing the efficiency and service performance of Hong Kong's public administration in dealing with members of the public and enterprises; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(3) whether it has plans to make better use of survey reports and recommendations from relevant departments (e.g. by linking them with relevant information from the Chief Executive's Policy Unit) to assist in the proper conduct of internal studies to examine policy issues; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Our consolidated reply to the three-part question is as follows:
The Digital Policy Office (DPO) established in July this year is a top-level design announced by the Chief Executive in the 2023 Policy Address. By merging the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) and the Efficiency Office (EffO), the DPO is tasked to formulate policies and measures related to digital government, data governance and information technology, and accelerate the development of digital government through a top-down approach, thereby improving governance and efficacy of the administration.
Following the re-organisation, the DPO consolidates the expertise and experience of the OGCIO and the EffO to provide comprehensive advice and consultancy services to various policy bureaux and departments (B/Ds) in areas such as design thinking, digital technology application, and innovation and technology project management, with a view to accelerating the development of digital government. As such, the non-digital technology related work of the former EffO, including business process re-engineering, organisation re-structuring, performance measurement, knowledge management and change management, can be further strengthened through the DPO's digital policies and digital technology solutions.
Specifically, one of the priority tasks of the DPO is to integrate the digital technologies and services of the OGCIO and the professional knowledge and talents of the EffO in promoting business efficiency, so as to steer various B/Ds in leveraging advanced technologies (including big data analytics, artificial intelligence, geospatial analysis, data dashboards, etc.) to improve decision-making and strategic planning; and to continuously enhance the government's central data platforms and services (including Government Cloud Infrastructure Services, Big Data Analytics Platform, Shared Blockchain Platform, "iAM Smart", Consented Data Exchange Gateway (CDEG)) to support various B/Ds in developing and implementing more data-driven, people-centric, outcome-based and efficient e-government services that bring convenience and benefit to the public and businesses. These include:
(1) To drive B/Ds to achieve service integration through "iAM Smart" to optimise user experience, with a view to achieving full adoption of "iAM Smart" by all e-government services by the end of 2025 to achieve "single portal for e-government services";
(2) To promote the use of the CDEG by various B/Ds to facilitate data exchange between B/Ds, enabling citizens to authorise government departments to use personal information stored in other departments, thereby obviating the need for repetitive submission of the same information and enhancing efficiency of government services;
(3) To develop the Digital Corporate Identity Platform to facilitate corporations in Hong Kong to undergo corporate identity authentication and corporate signature verification processes when they use e-government services or conduct online business transactions in a secure, convenient and efficient manner, hence simplifying the complicated procedures and accelerating their digital transformation; and
(4) To continue promoting the open data policy and formulate data governance standards to facilitate the collection, analysis, sharing and application of data, and to compile departmental data catalogues to promote the opening up and sharing of data among B/Ds.
The DPO will continue to play its top-level role in collaborating and co-ordinating with relevant B/Ds and rendering advice on service improvement of departments; promoting data-driven, people-centric and outcome-based digital government services within the government; and accelerating the development of digital government, thereby enhancing government efficiency and service quality and bringing more benefits to citizens and the business sectors.