HONG KONG, Dec. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- More and more Hong Kong households are purchasing personal computers and connecting to the Internet, a survey conducted in mid-2004 has found.

    Some 1.58 million households, or 71.1 percent of all domestic premises in Hong Kong, had PCs in 2004. Among them, 1.44 million, or 91.3 percent, were connected to the Internet, representing 64.9 percent of all households.

    The Census & Statistics Department said in a press release Monday that this represents a noticeable increase compared to the previous year when 67.5 percent of households had a computer at home and 60 percent of them had it connected to the Internet.

    Utilization of electronic business services was also high. About 96.5 percent of people aged 15 and over had used electronic business services of one form or another for personal matters in the year before the survey, as against 93.6 percent in 2003.

    Regarding the usage of online purchasing services, the survey estimated that around 410,600 people aged 15 and over, or 7.1 percent of all people in that age group, have used one or more types of online purchasing services for personal matters in the year before the survey. The corresponding figures in 2003 were 401,600 people and 7 percent.

    Use of online government services is also increasingly common. The survey estimated that 1.64 million people aged 15 and over, or 28.5 percent of all in that age group, used online government services for personal matters. The figure in 2003 was 24.3 percent,up 4.2 percentage points.

    An establishment survey has found that establishments using computers and having Internet connections has grown to 58.4 percent and 50.4 percent, from 54.8 percent and 47.5 percent the previous year.

    Among the major sectors, PCs are most popularly used in the financing, insurance, real estate and business services sector (82.3 percent) and manufacturing, electricity and gas (63.1 percent). The percentage of establishments with Internet connection is also highest in these two sectors, at 76.9 percent and 54.1 percent.

    The total amount of business receipts received from selling goods, services or information through electronic means in 2003 was estimated at 21.2 billion HK dollars (2.72 billion US dollars),up 35.4 percent on the 15.6 billion HK dollars receipts the previous year.

    Of the total amount received from selling goods, services or information through electronic means, the percentage share in respect of selling through the Internet was 64.6 percent in 2003, about the same as the 65.5 percent figure in 2002. Enditem