They made the remarks while marking on Friday the 34th World Telecommunications Day, whose theme is "ICT for all: empowering people to cross the digital divide."

The digital divide means the gap in information and telecommunications services between the developed and developing countries and between the rich and the poor, cities and the countryside.

Zhang Chunjiang, vice-minister of the Information Industry, said the total number of the phone users in China had reached 350 million, its telecommunications network topped the world in terms of scale and millions of Chinese people were enjoying the benefits of the rapid growth of the telecommunications sector.

However, the standard of telecommunications was uneven across the country and it had lagged behind in the less-developed western areas of China, Zhang noted.

Statistics show that the number of Internet surfers in Guangdong, Beijing and Shanghai accounted for 10.4 percent, 9.8 percent and 9.2 percent respectively of the country's total, whereas that of Tibet, Qinghai and Ningxia in west China was only 0.1 percent, 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent.

"In the new century, China, just like other developing countries, is facing the task of narrowing the digital divide," he stressed.

In fact, in its effort to empower the information industry and popularize telecommunications, China has made remarkable achievements.

Statistics show that the rate of telephone usage in the country has reached 26 percent and Internet surfers number 37.55 million.

According to Wang Xiujun, a ministry official in charge of telecommunications administration, the service of popularizing telecommunications has long been the policy of the Chinese government.

Over the past two decades, various subsidies had been provided for the telecommunications service offered in the relatively backward western regions and rural areas, and the restructuring of telecom sectors had also played a remarkable role in boosting usage, she said.

Since 1980, she added, the telecommunications industry has witnessed a rapid growth in China's eastern, middle and west areas. Meanwhile, prices for the service has somewhat dropped and service quality has kept improving.

Wang noted that the focus in future would be telephone access in the relatively backward areas and Internet access in rural schools.

The cost of phone calls in rural areas would continue to drop in near future and a fund to boost phone usage would be set up as soon as possible for that purpose, Wang said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2002)