Adoption of ISO/IEC 10646 in Hong Ko

 

The HKSARG champions the adoption of ISO

key standard for Chinese Character processing in Hong

Information Technology Services Department has

community efforts, through the Chinese Language Int

Committee (CLIAC) with broad-based industry represe

set up in 1999, to establish a Chinese language inter

facilitate electronic communication in Hong Kong. A

the CLIAC is to advise on the establishment of t

Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) for incorporati

10646.

2. As of October 2009, all 5 009 published H

have been incorporated into ISO/IEC 10646 and its Am

CLIAC also advises on promoting the adoption of IS

handling characters in the HKSCS.

3. The OGCIO advocates that both the HKSAR

community should be able to use the most up-to

character set based on ISO/ IEC 10646. However, t

on two critical factors, namely, (a) support for the l

ISO/IEC 10646 by IT products and (b) the availability o

the interoperability of IT applications operating on dif 

generations of software products and the accessibility

using earlier versions and generations of products.

4. Until now, many users have been unable to

latest character set for information processing and e1

ng

 /IEC 10646 as a

Kong. The then

been leading

erface Advisory

ntation that was

face standard to

major function of 

he Hong Kong

on into ISO/IEC

KSCS characters

endments. The

O/IEC 10646 for

G and the local

-date universal

his is dependent

atest version of 

f tools to ensure

ferent versions / 

of data created

make use of the

xchange due to

inadequate standard product support . To meet their urgent practical

needs, the local user community has been relying on special software

features such as the Private Use Area (PUA) Chinese character coding

and associated tools to process and exchange data containing the

1  Standard Product Support means the ability to create and process electronic records encoded in

the respective version of the ISO10646 standard.

 

supplementary characters. Continued reliance on non-standard

features creates system maintenance problems and is undesirable.

5. The OGCIO urges major product suppliers to provide timely

standard product support for the latest universal character set and at the

same time help users protect their investment by providing the necessary

interoperability tools2  for existing systems.

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer

January 2010

2  Interoperability Tools are tools to facilitate accurate reading of electronic records encoded in all

versions of ISO10646 and HKSCS. Interoperability tools should be made available on all operating

systems still supported in the market.