Now that over four years have passed, Hong Kong's ITS outlook looks bleak rather than intelligent. Our ITS policy, which was made without practical initiatives, still invites criticism-from the ICT industry, transport operators, and Hong Kong citizens from all walks of life. The entire transport infrastructure has yet to be equipped with value-added ITS technologies, and many of the existing applications operate in a fragmented manner. R&D achievements in this sector are less than impressive, and the ITS market lags behind the development pace of other ICT sectors.

As if all this wasn't not bad enough, there are serious communications problems between the Transport Department and the ICT industry. For example, it is a little surprising that the Transport Department failed to establish some sort of consortium among ICT and transport operators, despite its claims of an ITS policy in existence for so many years.

In ICT industries, many operators are beginning to complain about the HKSAR government's ambiguous commitment to ITS. Rather than the current policy of paying lip service to the ITS issue, the industry urges the administration to increase its efforts to form more public-private partnerships in pursuing development of ITS. However, the authorities have yet to come up with pragmatic strategies and actions.

The traffic chaos caused by the storm revealed a need for action. It is time for the Hong Kong government to consult the ICT industry on how our transport infrastructure can be transformed and advanced if we wish to gain genuine benefits from the deployment of ITS in Hong Kong.

Sin Chung Kai is Hong Kong's Legislative Councillor for IT. Contact him at cksin@sinchungkai.org.hk