China Development Gateway (
www.chinagateway.com.cn),
an Internet information portal jointly sponsored by the World Bank
Group and the China Internet Information Center, will be officially
launched Tuesday in Beijing. What are the objectives of the Global
Development Gateway as well as its country development gateways?
How are the existing country gateways working? And, in particular,
what about the China Development Gateway? These and other questions
were recently asked by china.org.cn of Austin C. T. Hu, deputy
chief of Mission in the World Bank's Office in Beijing.
china.org.cn: What is the Global Development Gateway (GDG)
and what are its objectives?
Austin C. T. Hu: The Global Development Gateway is one of
the key programs of the Development Gateway Foundation, which aims
to bridge the "digital divide" between developed countries and
developing countries. The Development Gateway Portal offers users
access to development information, resources, and tools, providing
a space to contribute knowledge and share experiences. The Gateway
helps users navigate the growing amount of information available
online, and empowers virtual communities of learning to address key
development issues. Registered users can submit content on a topic
page and receive e-mail alerts to let them know about new content
available on a specific topic or focus of their interest.
AIDA (Accessible Information on Development Activities) is the
largest online source of public information on development
activities in the world, offering information on over 350,000
planned, current, and completed projects and programs from over 200
development agencies. AIDA allows users to search activities by
country, topic, source of funding, or status.
The Development Gateway Market (dgMarket) is a global marketplace
providing information on donor and government-funded development
activities. Donors and government agencies can directly post tender
notices and other procurement information on development projects.
Companies can set up a detailed profile to obtain automated e-mail
alerts whenever a tender notice that meets their specific business
interest is published. The full text of tender notices is available
to paying subscribers or can alternatively be purchased on a
per-notice basis.
To
sum up, the Global Development Gateway offers a way of using the
power of the Internet to connect people, knowledge and poverty
reduction.
china.org.cn: What are the country development gateways?
What are their objectives?
Austin C. T. Hu: Country gateways are a network of locally
owned and managed public-private partnerships with the World Bank
Group, are the country-level components of the Development Gateway.
Their mission is to facilitate innovative and effective use of the
Internet and other information and communication technologies in
the country to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development.
Country gateway portals help communities, organizations, and
individuals build partnerships, create and share local and global
development knowledge, solutions, and opportunities, and work
together to reduce poverty. By participating in and launching
diverse online and offline initiatives, country gateways enhance
transparency, efficiency, dynamism and sustainability of the
development process in their countries.
china.org.cn: How have the existing country gateways been
working?
Austin C. T. Hu: In the start-up phase (April 2000 to June
2001), the Country Gateway Program, operationally under the
auspices of the Development Gateway Foundation, consulted with
stakeholders and prospective donors to build partnerships and
obtain feedback on the portal site development and the proposed
work program. The technology infrastructure, applications, proposed
content management system were established and the first version
design of user interface, design and brand was completed. During
this phase, around 20 country gateways have been created, most of
which were countries in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region
(identified earlier as a pilot region). Pioneer countries from
other regions include China, Pakistan, West Bank and Gaza Strip,
Morocco, Namibia, Uganda, Colombia, and Peru.
In
October 2001, 15 Country Gateways submitted applications and seven
of them were awarded the infoDev implementation grants. They were:
Kyrgyz Republic, Namibia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, West Bank and
Gaza Strip, and China. China did an impressive job completing all
the deliverables for the planning stage within four months, in
comparison with an average of eight months of other grant winning
countries. But since others started earlier, they made bigger
progress on documentation, partnership building and public relation
campaign.
In
addition to these seven, there are currently 34 other country
gateways at different portal development stages: Some just received
new planning grant; some are finishing their planning deliverables
and will apply for the new Implementation Grants under the
Foundation's Grants and Investments Program. An allocation of
US$1.25 million was approved by the Board of the Gateway Foundation
in April 2002. And the country gateways, which applied last
October, but failed, are eligible for reapplying. Take the East
Asia and Pacific region as an example, Vietnam has just signed the
planning grant, and Pakistan and India are applying for the
implementation grants.
All country gateways have portals in both English and local
language. Some of them already have created a link between their
portals with the Global Development Gateway portal to exchange
information. Global Development Gateway is now available in
English, Spanish, French and Russian. China is working on the
language interface and platform to better integrate the China
portal with Global Development Gateway as well as other country
gateway portals.
china.org.cn: How is the China Development Gateway working?
What are the expectations that the Global Development Gateway has
from the China Development Gateway?
Austin C. T. Hu: The China Development Gateway aims to
provide a two-way communication channel to enhance international
communication and cooperation and contribute in integrating China
in the global economy; and provide a framework to promote
e-development within China. The China Development Gateway plans to
develop and publish a wide variety of content. And the services the
China gateway plans to provide include, for example, information
services, project management services, technology development and
consulting, travel services, advertising and policy consulting and
so on.
China Development Gateway successfully completed the planning
stage, and the Global Development Gateway has high expectations
from China Development Gateway as it can potentially reach a large
population and have a huge impact on poverty reduction and
sustainable development. There are several issues that are
particularly important for the China Development Gateway during the
next phase (now to end of June 2003):
First, all major technical components, related services, and the
support organization should become fully operational; high-priority
information functions, features, and tools should be in place;
besides, it should focus on more content and navigation in
Chinese.
Second, It should expand and integrate the E-Bookstore,
E-Procurement (subscription e-mail alerts, online billing, and
personalization features. Bidding documents, contract awards, and
consultant database should be offered; E-Government, and AIDA
database are also expected.
Third, products and services for all target markets should be
operational; it should be able to extend marketing and outreach
campaigns as new products are released; and it is recommended that
it focus on capturing and meeting demands for Development Gateway
products and services.
Fourth, more public relations and fundraising activities need to be
done and more strategic thinking on the financial viability is
required because it is vital to assure its sustainability after the
implementation grant.
Fifth, more local-level involvement will be further encouraged. It
is one of the main functions of the gateway to leverage the
resources between areas of different development levels. The portal
should provide a vehicle to address local needs and generate
demand-driven content. All stakeholders, including government,
private sector players, NGOs, civil societies need to be invited to
contribute to the discussions and consultations.
(By Chen Chao, china.org.cn staff reporter, May 27, 2002)