CHINA

STATEMENT BY H.E. MR WANG Xudong
Minister of Information Industry

Advancing the Building of the Information Society and Promoting the Development of the Harmonious Society

Mr. Chairman, delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning!

It gives me great pleasure to attend the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in this beautiful city of Antalya. First of all, please allow me, on behalf of the Chinese delegation, to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Turkish government and the ITU for their thoughtful arrangement for the conference.

The plenipotentiary conference is a four-year event, which reviews and summarizes the work of the ITU in the past four years, plans and arranges main tasks and objectives for the future work of the ITU. PP-06 takes place when the development and convergence of global information and communications technologies, services, and networks enters a critical phase and the transformation issue attracts the wide attention of the industry. The participants will discuss and exchange views on issues of common concern, such as how ITU could better play the leading and driving role in the process of building the information society. They will also study and revise the Constitution and Convention of the ITU and elect a new leadership team. I believe that with the concerted efforts of Mr. Chairman and the participants, PP-06 will complete its tasks as scheduled and achieve a full success.

Mr. Chairman, delegates,

Mankind is accelerating the pace toward the information society in the new century. We think that the information society should be a people-centered, development-oriented, and highly inclusive society. However, we must be aware that amidst the rapid development of the information and communications technologies and industries, the problem of uneven development remains acute, as evidenced by the widening digital divide between different nations, regions and groups of people. Developing nations still face a challenging task of accelerating the development of information and communications and narrowing down the digital divide. It is a tough challenge of the international community to gradually eliminate the de facto information islands and achieve the full coverage of global information and communications network. I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you our practices and experiences.

First, Accelerating the Development of Information and Communications Is the Basic Prerequisite for the Building of the Information Society. If the issue of development is not addressed, nothing can be discussed. To improve the informatization level, developing countries must follow the path of formulating right development strategies in line with their respective national conditions, adopting strong policy measures, encouraging and supporting the development of related industries including communications operation, product manufacturing, system integration, and information services, promoting the use of information technologies in upgrading traditional industries, and facilitating the development and utilization of information resources. In recent years, the Chinese government implemented the development strategy of advancing industrialization with informatization and following a new industrialization path and adopted a series of policies and measures to support the development of information and communications. As a result, notable achievements were made. So far, the number of China’s telephone subscribers has reached 812 million, with the penetration rate exceeding 50%. The number of Internet users rose to 123 million. The sales revenue of electronic and information products amounted to 3.84 trillion yuan and the export exceeded US$260 billion last year. To fulfill the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way, China shall quadruple the 2000 GDP figure by 2020. Centering upon this goal, we will accelerate the development pace, improve the level of information technologies, networks and services, and better satisfy the demands of different sectors for information and communications.

Second, Narrowing down the “Digital Divide” and Achieving Coordinated Development Is the Key to the Building of the Information Society. The Information society should be not only a society where the ICTs are widely applied in various economic and social sectors but also a society that benefits all the people in different regions. Otherwise, the fast growth cannot sustain and the development is not comprehensive and coordinated. Therefore, to build the information society, we must center upon the people, mobilize all social forces, and strive to achieve the coordinated development between different regions and between urban and rural areas. China is a developing country and there is a strong imbalance in the development ICT infrastructure between urban and rural areas and between the eastern, central and western regions. In light of these realities, we implemented the “Village Connected Project”. Up to now, telephone services are available in about 58,000 administrative villages, accounting for 98.3% of the total. 96% of the towns have conditions ready for Internet access. For the next step, we will adopt international common practices to accelerate the establishment of universal telecommunication service fund. We will try to develop the services and applications needed by rural areas by developing appropriate technologies through R&D, promote the development of communications and the informotization in central and western regions and in rural areas. Our goal is to have every village connected by telephones and every town connected by the Internet by 2010.

Third, Strengthening Innovation in Technologies and Services Is the Fundamental Driving Force for the Building of the Information Society. At present, driven by technological progress, the global ICT industry is witnessing a trend of migrating to the next generation network, voice services going mobile, fixed line services going IP and broadband. Various new technologies and services keep popping up. Therefore, we are facing a more complex environment in analyzing and judging the trend of network development and technologies. Here, we propose to stick to the market orientation and the combination of technological advancement and appropriateness, support and encourage the innovation in technologies and services by formulating industrial, technical and service policies, take an pragmatic attitude to promote the development of 3G and NGN, and meanwhile lead the businesses to establish a broader concept of information service industry, gradually expand and extend the value chain, foster new growth points, realize the shift of development modes and achieve the rapid and sustainable growth of the industry in the process of indigenous innovation.

Fourth, Strengthening International Cooperation Is an Important Guarantee for the Building of the Information Society. In present-day world, the information and communication network has linked the residents in the earth village more closely together. To achieve common development and prosperity and tackle the challenges confronted by the mankind, all governments and people should join hands and strengthen international exchange and cooperation. Hereby, I call on the governments of all countries, related international organizations and concerned parties to strengthen organization and coordination, and help developing countries improve capacity building and narrow down the “digital divide”. At the same time, we should learn from the bitter lessons of the Indian tsunami and the earthquake in South Asia, explore feasible ways and means to promote the use of ICTs for disaster prevention and reduction on the global scale. In recent years, China has carried out effective cooperation with related countries in the ICT sector within bilateral or multilateral frameworks. In the future, we will, in the principle of equality and mutual benefit, expand the international cooperation in an all all-round manner, upgrade the cooperation level and achieve common development and prosperity.

Mr. Chairman, delegates,

The WSIS held at the end of last year drew a promising yet challenging blueprint and clearly pointed out the direction for us to build an information society that benefits all people and countries. I believe that PP-06 will adopt practical and effective measures in accordance with principles and plans of actions identified at the WSIS to promote the application of ICTs in political, economic, cultural and other areas and unite the countries together for the building of an information society featuring harmonious development. We have noticed that the ITU is playing an active role in the process and appreciate the ITU for the efforts. We hope that the ITU could grasp the development opportunities of the times and play a more active and constructive role in driving the healthy development of the global ICT industry. The Chinese government always supports and will continue to support the efforts made by the ITU aiming at promoting the coordinated development of the global information and communications.

The profound development of the global information society unrolled a scroll of challenges and opportunities for us. The beautiful future needs our common wisdom and efforts. Let’s take the conference as a development opportunity to strengthen cooperation and exchanges, and make contributions to building a harmoniously developing information society and enabling ICTs to benefit the entire mankind.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.