The digital gap between urban and rural areas should be bridged, says an article in Shanghai Securities News. The following is an excerpt:

 

A report about the quality of Internet services in rural China by the China Internet Network Information Center shows that the popularity rate of the Internet is only 5.1 percent in rural areas. The rate in urban areas is 21.6 percent.

 

Meanwhile, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture said at a recent press conference that the income gap between urban and rural residents is growing. The income ratio between urban and rural residents was 3.21:1 in 2004 and 3.22:1 in 2005. It rose to 3.28:1 last year.

 

The digital and income gaps are closely connected. Social and economic development entered a new age in the 1990s as information became one of the three pillars supporting growth, along with new materials and sources of energy. The collection and analysis of data, together with the production and transformation of information, has become an engine for economic growth.

 

Efforts to obtain, define and utilize information are vital ways to hone the country's human resources. And human resources will play a decisive role in the long-term development of the economy and in raising incomes for laborers. Low incomes have restricted the ability of farmers to obtain and interpret information.

 

About 39.5 percent of the rural residents surveyed said the lack of facilities was the major reason for their not using the Internet. The lack of access to information and the inability to interpret it have resulted in a kind of "information poverty" among many rural residents that helps confine them to a vicious circle of poverty.

 

Globally, the digital divide has fostered inequality in international economic development, further marginalizing the least-developed countries.

 

Efforts should be made to close the digital divide and narrow the income gap in China.

 

Measures should be taken to boost the utilization of information technology in rural areas. Besides providing fiscal inputs, the government could draw up policies to encourage domestic computer manufacturers to develop low-priced computers.

 

Increasing farmers' incomes is the most effective way to bridge the digital divide. The cost of using the Internet is still a burden for farmers. Though China is home to the world's second largest Internet and broadband market, prices are still too high for average residents. Low incomes have sapped farmers' demand for Internet services.

 

Last but not least, education and training should be upgraded in rural areas to increase rural people's awareness of information technology.

 

(China Daily September 26, 2007)