Marine Region wins three ICT Awards
The Central Command System (CCS) of the Versatile Maritime Policing Response Project (VMPR) has won three Hong Kong Information and Communications Technology (HKICT) Awards for 2011, namely "Award of The Year", "Best Public Service Application Grand Award" and "Best Public Service Application (Transformation) Award".
Superintendent (VMPR) Glyn Davies received the three prestigious awards on behalf of Marine Region at a presentation ceremony in the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre on April 15.
The HKICT Awards were established in 2006 under the collaborative effort amongst the industry, the academia and the Government to build a large scale and internationally recognised branding of ICT awards of Hong Kong. It also encourages local practitioners to develop innovative and creative ICT solutions, which will uplift the image of the ICT sector in Hong Kong, both locally and internationally.
The "Best Public Service Application Award" aims at encouraging the development and implementation of ICT solutions in government departments and non-government organisations in order to better meet demands for public service delivery.
CCS is a new integrated command and control system for the Marine Region. It makes use of the latest information and communication technology to replace old marine policing strategy and deploys a number of police launches along the boundary to maintain its integrity. The system fuses all operational information into one single display, enabling the operators in the Marine Regional Control and Command Centre to more effectively deploy police resources to scenes of incidents, thereby enhancing efficiency and providing better services to the public.
CCS went through four rounds of assessment in the competition before achieving its awards. Entry proposal was submitted to award scheme in January for an initial assessment followed by a preliminary presentation made in February by the CCS Project Team before an eight-member panel consisting of representatives from the academia and professional bodies. The panel then conducted a site visit to the Marine Regional Command and Control Centre on March 2 to ascertain how ICT was applied in CCS to replace traditional marine policing strategy for the benefit of the community.
The project was short-listed for the final round of competition for the "Best Public Service Application (Transformation) Award" on March 15 and for the "Award of the Year" before a Grand Judging Panel on March 25.
On the day of awards presentation, SP Davies remarked: "The CCS not only improves our services to the public but also puts Marine Region at the forefront of maritime policing through advanced ICT applications."
Superintendent
Davies
receives the ICT Awards from the Financial Secretary, Mr John
Tsang