Hong Kong government Monday said that they are taking measures to tackle spamming, which has been growing more serious in Hong Kong.

John Tsang, Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, said Hong Kong has become a founding signatory of a multilateral pact to facilitate its co-operation with other Asia-Pacific signatories in tackling spamming.

"Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Countering Spam are one of the many measures to counter spamming, "said Tsang.

"And a campaign entitled 'STEPS' - strengthening existing regulatory measures, technical solutions, education, partnerships and statutory measures - has been launched in fighting the spam epidemic, "added Tsang.

The Government has been liaising with the trade on stepping up penalties for irresponsible marketing behavior by reducing the timeframe required to cut off their access to telecommunications services.

It is expected the measure will be in place in two or three months' time.

A recent survey showed 55 percent of all emails are junk mails, of which 5 percent are originated from Hong Kong and others from overseas.