Even though a growing number of city governments are creating their own websites, only a few are efficient in handling official affairs on-line, according to a research on the development of China's e-governance.

The report, covering China's 336 major cities, found that 303 cities of them, or 90.2 percent, had set up government websites by the end of January this year.

Most of the websites only provide government information, instead of being an accessible platform for the government to deal with economic and social affairs, noted the report.

The latest decisions made by the government, newly issued regulations, as well as related news stories are easily available on these websites, with the information updated at a quite satisfactory speed, said the report. However, it usually takes an unbearably long time to wait for feedback from government officials if common visitors post suggestions or complaints on the websites, it said.

"The public are still doubting whether the government could solve their problems via the Internet," Zhang Lingbao, director of the Anhui provincial economic and information center.

The report also said more city governments in China's southeastern areas have developed websites. Nevertheless, none of the cities in southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region have built government websites. Half of the cities in northwestern Qinghai Province and 20 percent of the cities in Sichuan, Gansu, Guangxi and Ningxia, all in western China, suffered a fairly big shortfall of such websites.

(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2004)