The younger generation does not favor a career in information technology (IT), a fact that is not conducive to the development of the hi-tech industry in Hong Kong.

This is the finding of a survey conducted by the TechMatrix Research Centre, the first technology-oriented think tank in the SAR.

The center carried out a telephone survey of 1,013 citizens aged 14-60 and released the result yesterday.

It found that "baby-busters" - those aged 14-28 - mainly used the Internet to obtain information (48 percent), express their views (48 percent) and kill time (62 percent), while TV and newspapers are getting less important in their lives.

Despite the high usage of the Internet by these youngsters, they would rather become doctors, lawyers, architects and engineers and not to work in the IT industry.

Patrick Mok, project coordinator of the University of Hong Kong's Centre for Asian Studies and drafter of the report, said the result is unexpected as one would expect the young ones to be less traditional when it comes to their career choice.

TechMatrix chairman Samson Tam said Hong Kong's IT industry is facing a gap with IT institutes being unable to get the best students and the business sector complaining that they cannot get talents with profound IT knowledge.

"The baby-busters are not interested in technology and innovation. Hong Kong has only IT users but no IT producers," he commented. "If it goes on like this, Hong Kong can only import innovation but it can never develop its own innovative, hi-tech industry which is something that the government has been talking about."

The think tank expressed hope for the government to take the initiative to promote a knowledge-based economy driven by innovation and technology.

(HK Edition 06/27/2008 page1)