People from all walks of life are being given the chance to take part in a series of cutting-edge research projects in Shanghai. The 16 research projects, launched yesterday, concern "urban informatization."

Cities such as Shanghai are introducing information technology into their industrial, agricultural and tertiary service sectors in a bid to push forward economic and social development.

The schemes in Shanghai are aimed at cultivating more people with IT (information technology) talents.

The Informatization Office of Shanghai Municipal People's Government and the Shanghai Municipal Internet Economy Consulting Center jointly selected the 16 projects and will take charge of administration work.

According to Vice-Director of the Informatization Office He Shouchang, the project is an innovative practice which aims to see the city speed up the informatization process with help from the public.

"The reason we carry out the research projects this way is to converge different opinions, innovation and methodology to provide e-solutions to the city's infrastructure," he said.

Officials from the Internet Economy Consulting Center said the files and results of the 16 projects will be stored to assist the municipality when making strategic plans for the information and communication industries.

The procedure for deciding which research projects to get the eventual go-ahead will be fair and open to public scrutiny, officials promise.

Experts, scholars, government officials, and representatives of universities and various enterprises will form the judging panel which makes the decisions. The panel will vote for all candidates in the first round of selection. The members of research team will be generated solely by the result of this vote.

In the following month, the candidates chosen from the first round are asked to submit their detailed plans for executing the research projects.

The panel will then evaluate each plan and score it for the second time. The score of each plan will decide how much of the budget each successful scheme can secure from the government.

"In the formalized selection process, all work is open to criticism, and we welcome Shanghai citizens to monitor our job. Thus, we hope to create a good atmosphere for implementing the projects," said Zhou Wenbin, vice-director of the Internet Economy Consulting Center.

(China Daily 06/06/2001)