Civil Service Newsletter Issue 115

Explanation of WCAG 2.0 Level Double-A Conformance

Buildings Department

THE Buildings Department (BD) is spearheading the development of an Electronic Submission Hub (ESH) (https://esh.bd.gov.hk/) which is a digital platform operating 24/7 to facilitate electronic submission of building plans and applications by registered building professionals (RBP) under the Buildings Ordinance (Cap. 123) (BO) and to allow BD and over 30 other government departments/organisations to process submissions through the Centralised Processing System (CPS).

ESH is one of the some 130 smart city initiatives set out in the Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint 2.0 released on 10 December 2020.

ESH is being implemented in three stages, each of which covers different types of building works. The stages 1 and 2 of ESH were rolled out on 30 June 2022 and 31 March 2023 respectively whereas stage 3 is scheduled to be launched in the second quarter of 2025 but BD is striving to advance it to the second quarter of 2024.

Processing of plans, documents and Submissions

Conventionally, any person in private sector who intends to carry out building works under the BO is required to appoint RBP to prepare and submit building plans and documents in paper format for the approval of the Building Authority (BA). BD is the central clearing house to process all building plan submissions received from RBP through CPS. If necessary, BD will refer hard copies of building plans and documents to relevant departments and organisations (i.e. CPS participants ) for comments.

Feature highlights of ESH

ESH opens up many opportunities to enhance government services and efficiency of the building industry. Some feature highlights are outlined below.

1 Formation of project team with collaborative e-workspace and useful reference to facilitate preparation of submissions.

2 Smart functions such as auto-filling of existing information in the system and auto-extraction of data from uploaded documents to fill in the required information.

3 Digital signing for multiple plans and documents in one-go.

4 Concurrent plan processing by different departments/organisations.

5 Real-time exchange of information between BD, different departments/organisations and building professionals.

6 Progress tracking of application status and notification of results.

Stakeholders’ engagement

Effective stakeholder engagement is crucial in the process of developing ESH as different stakeholders may have various requirements and preferences. To achieve this, BD has organised regular meetings, briefing sessions, and workshops with representatives from the building industry, CPS participants as well as BD's internal staff. The views and comments collected were carefully considered and incorporated into ESH, where appropriate.

BD remains dedicated to ongoing stakeholder engagement and continuous improvement of ESH to ensure that it continues to meet the evolving needs of the building industry and other users.

Various stakeholders’ engagement for ESH

Benefits and recognition of ESH

Users of ESH could enjoy the benefits of paper and resources saving as well as working smartly, efficiently, collaboratively and sustainably.

ESH has been well recognised by the industry and recently received a Merit Award under the Research and Innovation Category and two special awards, viz Sustainability Award and Value Enhancement Award of Building Surveyor Awards 2023 organised by the Building Surveying Division of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors. The awards are not only a recognition of the collaborated effort of BD and the building industry as well as other CPS participants but also a highlight of BD’s contribution to the promotion of digitalisation, sustainability and value enhancement for the building industry.

Features and advantages of ESH (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVvuvXFClz8)

30th Anniversary of BD

Over the past 30 years, BD has been dedicated to making the built environment safe and healthy for our community. The department is committed to going the extra mile in serving the customers and the community in general, and will continue to collaborate with the building industry and leverage the latest technologies such as Building Information Modelling to enhance the quantity, speed, efficiency and quality of the building development.