$1b Smart Traffic Fund Planned

(To watch the 2020-21 Budget speech with sign language interpretation, click here.)

In an effort to promote smart city development, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said the Innovation & Technology Bureau will adopt measures this year set out in the Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong 2.0.

The bureau will also launch the iAM Smart one-stop personalised digital service platform in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Through this free of charge platform, the public will have the ability to access more than 100 online by the middle of next year.

As part of the Government’s smart city mission, the Financial Secretary explained that $1 billion will be earmarked for the Smart Traffic Fund.

The fund, which is expected to start operation in 2020-21, aims to support enterprises or organisations to conduct research and application on vehicle-related I&T.

A high-quality city-wide 3D digital map will also be rolled out in phases starting this year, while the Common Spatial Data Infrastructure Portal is set for full operation by the end of 2022.

An extra $60 million will be designated for setting up the city’s first Geospatial Lab.

This lab will encourage the public to make use of the spatial data.

The Development Bureau has been actively promoting the digitisation of the works supervision system. Starting from this year’s second quarter, all public works projects will adopt the system in phases.

To enhance project supervision, the finance chief will allocate $100 million to develop an integrated digital platform for data integration and information exchange.