Over 100 representatives in charge of the major e-government
projects throughout the country are attending the National
E-government Work Meeting, which began in Shanghai
on Thursday and ends today.
Chen Dawei, deputy director of the State Council Informatization
Office, said: "The e-government websites in most provinces have
helped local governments communicate more easily with local
residents and therefore make the administrative work more
transparent and efficient."
According to the office, most provinces would have completed the
construction of their e-government networks by the end of July.
Chen added that three major cities, namely Shanghai, Xiamen and Guangzhou,
are leading the way in building e-government portals and related
websites.
Qiao Zhigang, vice-director of the Shanghai Informatization
Commission, said: "We have finished constructing the overall
framework linking the municipal government website with those of
district governments."
Qiao added that the commission is working on a project that will
enable Shanghai residents to access more public information via
only one website. This would require the compilation of resources
from the various government agency websites.
The Shanghai government website www.shanghai.gov.cn is currently
linked to 240 district government, government agency and society
websites.
Shanghai residents in the city can now download 2,400 kinds of
government forms from the Internet, enabling them to conduct 703
different kinds of government-related business.
Previously, much of the work had to be done in person with the
relevant government agency.
Commission officials revealed that a pilot project in Huangpu
District, that combines information from six different governmental
agencies, would make it even more convenient for those applying for
income subsidies.
Applicant now need only complete nine forms online rather than
the previous 19 forms that had to be submitted by hand.
The online process has also reduced processing time from 15 to
three days, and has done away with the need for applicants to
scurry between the different agencies.
Qiao added that Shanghai's e-government projects are being
developed for companies as well as individuals.
Qiao said: "The pilot project in Songjiang District has
information from 23 government departments available on a platform
that all locally registered firms can access."
Likewise, the different departments can access general
information on the local companies via the same portal.
Setting up a company is also easier with the e-government
portal. It now takes only 10 days to register a company compared
with the previous 30 days.
China currently has about 103 million Internet users.
(China Daily August 19, 2005)