The State Council vowed recently to facilitate e-governance, bringing the public and governments closer through the Internet.

The move was made following growing complaints and criticisms against governmental websites being user-non-friendly and lacking useful information.

Currently, the State Council Informatization Office is working with other central government departments to draft a regulation requiring all governmental organizations to publicize information of concern to the public.

The regulation is expected to take effect this year.

The office's department director, Zhao Xiaofan, said that people should be able to access information related to administrative affairs on official websites of governmental agencies by then.

But in the past, people had no easy access to governmental documents and information because some of them were labeled as classified and hidden in archives.

Since China embarked on market-oriented reforms at the end of 1970s, the public has been crying for more government transparency.

China's highest leadership has echoed such calls and launched its ambitious e-government initiative in 2000.

During previous years, China has made great progress on the initiative and the next step should be focused on enhancing online interactions between the public and government, Hu Xiaoming, vice president of the National Information Center told China Daily.

Hu said that a law is being drafted to supervise the government's behavior in the release of information.

"If the law is approved by the National People's Congress, government agencies shall be legally bound to publicize information related to government affairs in a timely way," said Hu.

The word "Internet" was an alien concept to most Chinese people in the early 1990s. But it has now developed rapidly in the country despite its late introduction.

The latest survey by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) indicated that netizens in the country reached 94 million by the end of last year, a year-on-year surge of 18.2 percent. The figure was only 670,000 when the first such a survey was conducted in 1997.

By the end of last year, 41.6 million computers had been connected to the Internet on the Chinese mainland, compared with 330,000 in 1997.

"All the progress has resulted from robust economic growth and rising living standards across the nation," said Zhao Xiaofan.

He added that with more and more people able to afford computers and having basic know-how to get online, it would be natural to see a rapid growth of netizens. And the situation would lay down a firm foundation for the development of e-governance.

Since it first went online in 1998, the Chinese Government has shown great enthusiasm to realize its goal of digital-governments. It is expected to work as a way to propel transparency in governance and political reform.

Zhao said that the e-government initiative will promote democracy because it provides channels for citizens to voice their opinions and ideas through digital connections, such as e-mail and online forums. And even some simplified election procedures can be held by, for example, allowing online voting.

"It can make administrative work more transparent and efficient by connecting government departments through the Internet," said Zhao.

According to a recent report on the development of China's electronic governance, more than 90 percent of the country's 336 big cities have already created official websites.

The municipal government in Wenzhou, a city in East China's Zhejiang Province, has reportedly raised 10.26 billion yuan (US$1.24 billion) to establish a "digital Wenzhou." The city plans to focus on speeding up efficiency and transparency in dealing with government affairs, businesses and public services.

At the same time, however, a survey conducted by Zhao's office last year found that only 5.2 percent of China's government websites were visited frequently. And only 14.8 percent of the government websites contain English pages.

Information contained on most of the websites owned and operated by governmental establishments is found to fail to meet citizens' needs.

Meanwhile, only a few of these websites effectively deliver public services as expected, the survey found.

Some web pages, for example, www.tongjiang.gov.cn, a county-level government website, was found to be dysfunctional for several months.

To find out the real situation of the operation of e-governments, the municipal government of Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province, recently published an assessment on local digital governments.

According to the report, 14 of its 91 governmental websites scored a zero because of poor accessibility. The report also listed lack of content, updates and interaction as major problems.

Zhao Xiaofan said that the Internet has become an important channel for public opinion but in many local governments' websites, only headshots of officials could be found. They don't function as an avenue for listening and responding to the public.

"Interaction between government departments and the public is badly needed through the Internet," said Zhao. "And that will be our office's work priority during next five to 10 years."

(China Daily March 22, 2005)