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Mr Wong, Mrs Yu, Mr Koo, Prof Li, Prof Wong, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
I am really delighted to be here at the Launching Ceremony of Hong Kong Cyber Campus and to see this innovative concept, supported financially partly by the University Grants Committee and partly by the Quality Education Fund, taking another important step towards being realised.
One of the recommendations arising from the UGC's recent comprehensive review of the development of higher education in Hong Kong1 was to encourage the UGC-funded institutions to develop more and closer links with the school sector. Subsequently, the Grants Committee agreed to set aside part of its Central Allocation Vote 1995-98 to provide financial support for projects that would enhance the interface between the tertiary and the school sectors, and promote collaboration and understanding between the two sectors.
The institutions were invited to submit project proposals and the response was most encouraging - a total of 70 proposals were received. Of these, the UGC initially supported 30 at a total cost of $20m.
Among the remaining 40 proposals were a number of projects for the development of IT networks with schools. The UGC considered that these proposals should preferably be pursued on a joint or consortium basis. The Committee therefore invited the institutions to resubmit a proposal jointly on this basis, and set aside a further $12m to support the consortium project.
The consortium, involving all the eight UGC-funded institutions, was duly established in May 1998, based on the Hong Kong School Net developed by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. It aims to provide network resources and technical support to students, teachers and schools, and to foster the development and sharing of educational content and software. For students and teachers in primary and secondary schools it will also provide a variety of services including forums, newsgroups, websites, etc.
The consortium was originally intended to cover about 200 schools. However, thanks to the further funding support made available by the Quality Education Fund, the consortium project can now be extended to 350 secondary and primary schools. This will mean that even more of our students will be made IT aware and proficient. Ideally, however, we would like to see the network extended to cover all schools as soon as possible. Apart from making students IT aware and proficient, Hong Kong Cyber Campus will also expose them to a whole new and growing world of information and virtual reality which can stimulate their creativity and intelligence, and broaden their vision of the world.
In the last ten years, the Internet and the World Wide Web have grown and developed at a truly staggering pace. According to a recent survey of Internet hosts2, the Internet is now growing at a rate of about 40 to 50 percent annually and there are some 37 million "advertised" connected computers in 240 countries and territories. Projecting forward on the basis of the current trend - normally a dangerous approach, but in this case probably justified - there could well be as many as 90 million hosts on the Net by the turn of the century. Moreover, the Internet Industry Almanac3 projects that there will be 579 million computers in use worldwide by the end of year 2000.
At the same time the range and variety of information available on the World Wide Web is also expanding exponentially. I am pleased to say that the University Grants Committee and the various other government and non-government agencies involved in education are leading the way in the provision of more information, as well as better organised and presented content, on the World Wide Web.
Use of the Internet in Hong Kong is already well-advanced. According to the Internet Industry Almanac4, Hong Kong ranks 14th in the world in terms of the number of Internet users per 1,000 population, but Hong Kong's rate of 63 per 1,000 is still only just over one-third of the average for the top 15 countries, and significantly less than half that of Singapore.
The development of Hong Kong Cyber Campus is therefore a timely initiative which will surely present great opportunities for developing awareness and use of the Internet to enhance the quality of education. Our universities have considerable expertise and experience in establishing computer networks and applying IT in various aspects of education. Through this new initiative, this expertise will be used to assist schools, teachers and students to come to grips with the information age. Hong Kong Cyber Campus will also complement the resources already being or to be provided by the Government to schools under the IT in Education programme.
If Hong Kong is to remain internationally competitive in the information age and the global knowledge-based economy, our young people must have the necessary facilities, skills and training to cope with these phenomena. I therefore congratulate all parties involved in the Hong Kong Cyber Campus project, from both the tertiary and the school sectors, on this collaborative effort to widen our students horizons and improve the quality of education through use of the Internet.
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