Along with so many local small and medium-sized enterprises left behind by Tung Chee-hwa's Policy Address last week are folk like Mr. Wong, an IT veteran who has spent most of his life developing a career in the IT industry but who now finds himself in danger of disappearing from the trade.

"I have scaled back business operations since the ravages of the dot-com boom", Mr. Wong said. "For many companies, technology budgets just remained flat throughout the recession. I haven't been able to secure any business at all. I have attempted to secure funding and loans from the government and banks respectively, but it failed because my business and financial conditions could not fully satisfied the institutions' criteria. I've asked the government to tender more IT projects. But the government tenders seem always to go to the well-established IT companies".

Such sorrowful stories have been echoing throughout IT industry during recent years. The number of IT business failures has substantially risen as companies exhaust their venture capital.

In this dire crisis, many entrepreneurs like Mr. Wong were able to find little help but to pray that Policy Address might offer some kind of assistance to ease their suffering.

In his speech on 8 January 2003 the Chief Executive said: "We can understand the situation and appreciate the feeling of those who have been hurt by economic restructuring. As long as we move with the times, give full play to our strengthens, keep on exploring and innovating, I believe the strategic position and unique role of Hong Kong will never be replaced."

In other words, what lies ahead of Mr. Wong is an unknown future. Just as Mr. Wong's hopes have so often been frustrated by the administration's incapability, so they were dashed again.

The centerpiece of the blueprint unveiled by Mr. Tung was the elimination of the fiscal deficit. Other than that, the plan contained no job creation program, no assistance for the many enterprises sinking in the quicksand of mammoth budget deficits, and no commitment on Hong Kong's development of IT.

There is no doubt that IT and e-business are going to have a profound effect on business, government and on the way people live and work. It is already a well-known fact that countries that wholeheartedly embrace these tools will benefit from improved national economic performance.

Little wonder then, that governments in other countries have all given a higher political priority to developing IT and e-business.

Yet, surprisingly, from reading Mr. Tung's speech and policy agenda, there is not even a hint that priority will be placed on IT - once the recurrent and favored theme on his policy agenda. Does this mean that government lost its penchants for IT with the bursting of the dot-com bubble?

The Policy Address is a golden opportunity for the government, not only to hand to ease the economic difficulties suffered by the IT sector but also to be a prescriptive measure to revive the entire economy.

Fostering the wider application of IT in business not only helps to reduce day-to-day operation cost, it also improves the competitiveness and capabilities of local enterprises. Or, the government could also lead by example by investing IT at all levels to modernize internal operations, enhance productivity and make better use of limited resources. In one form or another, these measures will improve the bad shape of the IT sector by opening up new business and career opportunities in the IT industry. Ultimately, everyone would benefit.

The government needs to recognize that IT is not expenditure on a mere hook-up to Internet any more. Instead, it is about a way of re-engineering the entire society, about a critical, long-term investment for every sector of every economy. It is also about the kind of economy we want Hong Kong to be in the 21st century.

I have high hopes that, at the end of the day, we will become a leading digital city in the global world. However, this goal will only be realized with our government who also shares this vision, and can meld technology into its wider political and social project.

The question is, does Mr. Tung want to rekindle my and Mr. Wong's hope?

SIN CHUNG KAI

[South China Morning Post, January 14, 2003]