FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THE TENTH INTERNATIONAL WORLD WIDE WEB CONFERENCE (WWW10) IN HONG KONG (May 2001) HONG KONG WINS BID TO HOST WWW10 Dr. Allan Ellis, Chairman of the International World Wide Web Conference Committee, which is based at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, announced yesterday (20 January) that Hong Kong has won the bid to host the Tenth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW10) to be held in May 2001. This premier conference series was started in May 1994 at CERN, the birthplace of the Web. Past Web conferences have been held in North America and Europe, and there has previously been only one held in the Asia-Pacific region: WWW7 in Australia. At a meeting with senior representatives from universities, government and industry, Dr Ellis officially confirmed the result of the international competition for the right to host this prestigious international event. “The Hong Kong Bid beat a number of others in a close contest,” Dr Ellis said. An international gathering of between 1,500 to 2,000 delegates is expected at the WWW10 Conference in Hong Kong in early May 2001. This sharing and meeting with the world's best minds will undoubtedly open up new possibilities and opportunities to accelerate Hong Kong's already rapid deployment of IT in business and industries, and provide fresh impetus to stimulate the use of IT in human resources development. The joint bid by a group of professionals from local academic institutions, industry, and government was inspired by the vision of Hong Kong to become a leader, not a follower in the information age, as expressed by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee-hwa, in his 1997 policy address. Prof. Vincent Shen of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, speaking on behalf of the seven partners in the Hong Kong bid, said: “We are very pleased and honoured to have been entrusted with holding the WWW10 in Hong Kong. We believe that this event will really help to put Hong Kong on the map in this rapidly developing and challenging field.” The seven partners in the Hong Kong bid are: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, The Hong Kong Productivity Council, Cable and Wireless HKT Schoolteam (Asia) Ltd, The Hong Kong IT Federation, and The Hong Kong Web Symposium Consortium. Professor Shen was the coordinator of the joint bid. Released by the W3C Office in Hong Kong. Tel: 2358 8772 Fax: 2358 8777 Email: info@www10.org.hk 21 January 2000