'I can't really give you specific examples...this is a little like a doctor-patient relationship,' he explained. 'I think that's part of having a more mature relationship with the departments. We seem to have departments more willing to cooperate and we are hearing less of the 'we need to run things our own way' type of conversations. I think that is a good change.'

Taking ownership

Riding on a stronger relationship with government departments, the OGCIO is also taking up ownership in the provisioning of public services online with the new One-Stop Portal (OSP) strategy.

Aimed at unifying content and transactions, the OSP will merge the transaction-slate currently available on the ESDlife site with content from the Government Information Center (www.info.gov.hk). The OSP, expected to debut 'around mid-2006' according to a January 2006 statement from the OGCIO, will re-provision public services from ESDlife and is expected to serve as a platform to attract more joint-departmental services.

Yet not everyone approves of the OGCIO's achievement in building a stronger relationship with the departments.