A State Council report shows that government services are still
delivered mainly in person or on paper, despite the mushrooming
number of government websites in recent years.
The findings obtained after a three-month study indicate that
only 5.2 percent of China's government websites are frequently
used. Nearly half of the 11,764 sites are simply one-way mirrors,
the State Council Informatization Office said in its report, and
more interaction is badly needed.
A State Council official who wished to remain anonymous said
that by the end of this year, central government departments will
deliver documents and meeting notes through the web. A long-awaited
central government portal will be launched this year.
China had approximately 600,000 approved websites by the end of
2003, up 60.3 percent from 2002, said the report on Internet
resources in China, which was produced by the China Internet
Network Information Center (CNNIC).
However, about 90 percent of the websites are in the more
developed provinces, showing a growing gap between rich regions and
less developed regions, the report said.
Beijing, south China's Guangdong
Province, east China's Zhejiang
Province and Shanghai are the top four for the number of
websites, accounting for 56.8 percent of the total.
In western China, however, many government officials face cyber
difficulties.
Wang Gang, a 30-year-old assistant to a county head in Sichuan
Province, said his day-to-day business has always been done
face-to-face or on paper.
"I have no basic knowledge of the Internet. I don't have
e-mail," Wang told China Daily when asked to conduct an
online interview this week.
The report also indicated that only 14.8 percent of the Chinese
government websites have English pages and just 3.0 percent include
Japanese. The lack of content in foreign languages has also brought
complaints from foreigners.
Canadian businessman Mark Justine said there is no English
version in some websites of cabinet departments, not to mention
agencies at provincial or local levels.
"That makes it difficult for me to read them," said Justine.
But some cities are leading the way. Northeast China's coastal
city of Dalian has set up Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean
versions of its government website.
Zhao Xiaofan, director of the State Council Informatization
Office, said the Internet in China has developed rapidly despite
its late introduction. As recently as the early 1990s, "Internet"
was still an alien word to the public.
Zhao said the e-government initiative would promote democracy by
providing residents with more digital connections such as e-mail,
and simplifying election procedures by, for example, allowing
voting online.
"They can also make administrative work more transparent and
efficient by networking government departments and introducing
Intranets and so on," said Zhao.
He said the Chinese government has shown great enthusiasm for
information technology as part of the country's modernization
drive.
The government has set ambitious goals for Internet usage and IT
development in its Tenth
Five-Year Plan (2001-2005).
By the end of 2005, China should have a broadband network that
combines Internet, telephone lines and cable networks. The number
of Internet users is expected to reach 150 million, or more than 11
percent of the population.
(China Daily April 5, 2004)