During the past two days (9-10 December 2002) some 300 participants, including high-level representatives from governments, the private sector, and academia, addressed the theme of “Information and Knowledge for Trade and Development”.

This high profile event was co-hosted by China’s Ministry of Finance, the Municipality of Chongqing, and infoDev of the World Bank Group.

In his opening address, Vice Minister of Finance Jin Liqun underlined that relying on low value-added, labor-intensive productions could only be a short-term strategy and that China was “committed to upgrading its education system and optimize investment in science and technology for sustained development”.

Executive Vice Mayor Huang Qifan outlined five kinds of environmental improvements, which could help Chongqing to become a leader in the emerging global economy. He declared that “through this Symposium, we can make many foreign and domestic fiends to go deep into the understanding of each other and find the cooperation opportunities which will help to propel the construction of the information center on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River”.

Frannie Leautier, vice president of the World Bank and head of the Would Bank Institute, stressed the important role that the World Bank Group was already playing in China in the area of knowledge. She recalled that “the development community has recognized the important roles that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and knowledge play in poverty reduction and capacity building, and the importance of bridging not only the hardware gaps, but to equip people with the skills and opportunities to create, access and use technology and knowledge well”.

Messages of support for the Symposium were received from the Honorable Donald Johnston, secretary general of the OECD; Rubens Ricupero, secretary-general of UNCTAD; and Mr. Denis Belisle, executive director of the International Trade Center (UNCTAD-WTO).

A number of panels were organized on various topics including WTO-related issues, e-government, distance learning, and the role of ICT in fighting poverty. A special presentation was made of the upcoming Global Information Technology Report (GITR), which will be officially launched at the next annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (Davos, January 2003). In this report, which is co-produced by INSEAD, the World Economic Forum and infoDev, a number of analyses and indicators describe the readiness of 82 countries to compete in the networked economy.

In presenting this report, Bruno Lanvin, manager of infoDev, indicated that “those countries that have been most successful at using ICTs to foster their growth and development have been those in which the government sector has played a leading role in the development of ICTs while providing a supportive environment for the private sector.” He also emphasized that between 2001 and 2002, China was the country that had moved up in the most spectacular fashion on the network readiness index scale provided in the report. “Over the last year, China moved up from a ranking of 64 to 43.”

It is expected that the success of the 2002 infoDev Symposium will have visible effects in China and in Chongqing. On December 10, Ms. Karin Finkelston, China country manager for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group in China, and Executive Vice Mayor Huang Qifan, signed a Memorandum of Understanding which opens the way for further cooperation between the Municipality of Chongqing and the IFC to mobilize private financing and stimulate private sector growth.

At the end of the meeting, it was also announced that an infoDev grant of US$120,000 would be provided to the Municipality of Chongqing in support of it’s strategic e-government efforts.

Bruno Lanvin, manager of infoDev, explained that “this grant could lead to leveraging other possible efforts from the World Bank Group, including the Global Development Learning Network, the Development Gateway, and other programs in support of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

At the conclusion of the conference, it was announced that next year’s infoDev Symposium would be held in Geneva, Switzerland as a parallel event to the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).

(China.org.cn December 10, 2002)