Chen Dawei, deputy director of the Information Technology Office of the State Council, said, "The e-government websites in most provinces have helped the local governments more easily reach local residents and therefore make the administrative work more transparent and efficient."
Huian City Government in China has chosen China Expert Technology (CXTI) for a US$17 million contract to implement its e-government services program, ranging from hardware and e-government training facilities to call centre services.
Governments usually strike both the business community and citizens as too monolithic to respond to their changing needs in a timely fashion, but the Hong Kong SAR government has been riding the technology wave to make its range of e-services more user-friendly and cost-effective to develop.
In July 2003, when she was completely green to the Internet, unable even to type, Man was told she could submit almost all her company's tax report forms via the Internet rather than having to go to the tax bureau's office every month.
"At the beginning I was totally in a mess, but now I can do all that any time, anywhere with a computer and access to the Internet," Man said.
The network will be based on a wide array of information technologies, according to an official with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the system’s developer.
The system will feature a nationwide virus database, epidemic analysis and information sharing among foreign experts and regular information releases to the public, according to Ma Juncai, assistant director of the academy’s Institute of Microbiology.