Financial Secretary Paul Chan on Friday said the government's Digital Economy Development Committee, which he chairs, has come up with 12 recommendations.

They cover five key areas, namely strengthening digital policy, IT infrastructure, cross-border data flow, getting businesses to adopt new technology and attracting qualified people, Chan said.

The proposals include setting up a digital policy office to help make the city smarter, getting a super computing centre up and running by the end of the year, extending commercial data interchange to offer loans to businesses effectively, and a study on data trading.

“We see clear potential for international data trading to become a new and thriving industry in this city. With that in mind, we have commissioned an expert group to study how best to develop a robust data trading system in Hong Kong. This is an area of tremendous promise for us,” Chan said.

The minister's remarks were made at the Digital Economy Summit, where he also said that the digital economy has clearly emerged as a new “driving force” for global economic development.

“The landscape is complex and rapidly changing, competition among cities and economies in this field is intense, Hong Kong must move fast to stay ahead of the curve,” Chan said.

Separately, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong stressed that new technology should be used in a sustainable way.

“How we are going to achieve a sustainable future is the development by maintaining a balance between using technology in an intelligent way while at the same time promoting, creating, and maximising the long-term value by using technology in a safe and responsible way,” he said.