各位IT朋友﹕

二月二十七日—給IT人的2013至14年度財政預算案號外

其實以香港優越的財政條件和今年649億盈餘，應該把握機會規劃長遠經濟和產業發展，可惜財政司司長剛發佈的財政預算案保守、了無新意，對於新興產業發展乏善足陳，整體仍然缺乏產業多元化和支持創新產業發展的新政策。

科研方面，值得留意的只有向六所大學提供三年最高一千二百萬元資助，以支持技術轉移部門的工作。但研發和科研商品化面對的問題是欠缺政策支援，單單撥款給技術轉移部門並未對症下藥，我將會跟進質詢政府對計劃的預期成效。近年雲端應用及數據中心發展蓬勃，但卻得不到政府進一步支持，我會繼續向政府爭取提供更多適用土地和簡化審批程序。

對於幫助中小企，司長建議增加中小企業市場推廣基金的累計資助上限，我對此表示歡迎。長遠而言，推廣本地市場也十分重要，業界一直希望政府資助本地企業採購本地科研產品及服務，我認為政府應回應業界的訴求，並重新注資中小企培訓基金，助香港邁向知識型經濟。

政府繼續進行電子貨幣研究和法例草擬工作，我支持盡快與國際接軌，加強規管和保障消費者，應付資訊保安風險。我已經聯絡有關部門，協助研究修訂相關法例，訂立牌照制度，並協助諮詢業界。

政府建議以4.8億元設奬學金讓每年約20名尖子往外國接受「高等」教育。這措施的效果成疑，而且受惠人數極少。這些資源何不用於增加資助大學學位、增加教師數目或推動免費幼兒教育，令廣大社會長遠受惠？

另外，相信各位都留意到，政府終於開始研究重設海水化淡廠，減少依賴東江水，但我認為將目標產量至少訂至佔全港用水量的20%以上，計劃才有意思。

請按此閱覽2013至14年度財政預算案的要點摘錄。

莫乃光

Dear IT friends,

2013-14 Budget Highlight to IT people – February 27, 2013

With an enormous HK$64.9 billion surplus, the government is well placed to invest in Hong Kong’s future. Unfortunately, the overly conservative and heavily recycled Budget just announced by the Financial Secretary has done nothing to diversify our economy or develop our new industries.

The only noteworthy new initiative is the proposal to provide a subvention of up to HK$12 million over three years to support the work of the technology transfer offices of our six universities. Yet it is hard to convince that the obstacles we face in successful commercialization of research results is due to a lack of resources in the technology transfer offices of the universities! I will follow up on the actual deliverables of this likely misguided initiative. On the other hand, we see no effort in this Budget to step up support for cloud computing and datacenter development. I will follow up on the critical issues such as land allocation and simplifying the regulatory hurdles facing datacenters. 

While I appreciate the FS’s proposal to increase the cumulative amount of the grant under the SME Export Marketing Fund to assist the SMEs, the local market is as important and we have lobbied for subsidy for local SMEs to buy local technology solutions. The government should also re-activate the defunct SME Training Fund to facilitate Hong Kong’s transition to a knowledge-based economy.

The government is considering amending legislation to introduce a licensing regime for stored value electronic money and set up regulatory regime for retail payment systems. I support this move to bring us closer to international standards and enhance information security. I am already in touch with the relevant bureau to offer assistance to bring the information about this opportunity to IT practitioners.

However, I am perplexed abut the Budget’s injection of HK$480 million into the Government Scholarship Fund (GSF) to assist a mere 20 local students to attend ‘prestigious’ overseas universities, then come back to be teachers. Why use such a large fund to benefit only a handful of people? Instead, society will be better off if we focus our resources in helping more people by offering more local subsidized university degree places, subsidize kindergarten education and hire more teachers.

Finally, I support the government’s plan to finally commence studies on the feasibility for a desalination plant to reduce reliance on fresh water supply from Dongjiang in China. But the 5% target output capacity is way too low and we should set a higher target of no less than 20% of our total water consumption.

Please click here to read a highlight of the 2013-14 Budget.

Charles Mok