The main task in South China's Guangdong Province's informatization this year is to quicken the building of e-government, said Xu Zhibiao, director of the Guangdong Provincial Information Industry Department, at a press conference on the development of informatization in the province on March 26.
"The escalation is in response to demand for an open, impartial and transparent government," Xu said.
"This year, we will set up a unified special information network platform in the province and connect government departments at all levels," Xu said.
At the press conference, Xu elaborated on the specific steps to be taken this year to achieve the target of e-government.
In the first half of the year, the province will finish the networking of five key provincial organizations -- the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China, provincial government, provincial People's Congress, provincial People's Political Consultative Conference and the provincial Discipline Committee, as well as of 21 cities above the prefecture level and the Shunde municipal government.
Within this year, Guangdong Province will complete the task of building a network connecting government departments and units directly under it.
The government's special network platform is being built by integrating existing resources, including the information networks used for the Ninth National Games, which were held in Guangdong Province last November, the optic fibre network of the provincial government and networks used by various local governments.
This year more than 90 per cent of departments directly under the provincial government and 80 percent of local governments will set up their internal official networks and link them to the platform to transfer official documents online between the province and cities and departments at different levels.
By the end of this year, all departments directly under the provincial government and local governments at the prefecture level will establish their public websites, publishing such information as policies, regulations and a procedure guide for the handling of official affairs. These websites will also offer other services such as online affairs handling and online examination and approval.
Early in 1996, a provincial government compound optic fibre network was established and in 1998 the Guangdong Internet Exchange was built to connect the five major information networks of post and telecommunications, radio and television, information, science and technology, and education.
(People's Daily March 27, 2002)
