The term "digital city" is more than a buzzword: it describes China's coming revolution in urban planning, administration and construction.

This was the view expressed by many officials, experts and IT people at the three-day China International Conference on Digital City Construction that ends in Guangzhou today.

The conference includes forums on national macro-policy, science, entrepreneurship, the Internet and e-commerce.

The sponsors are the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China News Agency and the Guangzhou municipal government.

The event aims to explore the mode and methods of developing digital city for the whole country, which will promote interactive communications between Internet-related industries and government for mutual benefit.

With digitalized information technology, local officials can make decisions on urban planning, construction and administration on a more scientific and standardized basis.

The urban digitalization process will check the development of illegal structures and stamp out corruption and other shortcomings in project bidding and property construction.

Beijing has designed a "digital Beijing" centered on the development of Zhongguancun, while Shanghai has put forward the concept of the information port.

Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, will provide local people with digital services, said city mayor Li Shusen.

He predicted that in five years' time, more than half of public services will be delivered via the Internet. A multimedia program base will be completed to provide images, text, languages, movies and software to local residences.

People should be aware of the phenomenon of the "digital gap" or digital disparity, said Jiang Mianheng from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Due to different economic and technological development speeds, some developed countries and regions have been dominant in the digital world, Jiang said.

Nowadays developed countries, with only 16 percent of the global population, account for 90 percent of the host computer network.

"The cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have taken up 60 percent of domain name registration of the whole country," he said.

Jiang said that to narrow the digital gap and strive for sustainable and harmonious development, fledgling digitalized cities are encouraged to share resources and provide technical support for lagging cities and regions.

Alongside the conference, the China International Exposition on Digital City Construction kicked off on Tuesday, showcasing the latest technologies and achievements on constructing the digital city, involving 70 IT firms and research institutes from 20 Chinese cities.

(China Daily 09/20/2001)