Beijing -
Tuesday, March
21, 2006
Ministry of Information Industry
In the afternoon, the Briarcliff contingent went back to Beijing 101 and also visited the school attended in China by their former young Chinese
student in Briarcliff.
The County contingent went to the ministry for information
technology, telecommunications, hardware and software, where we met with Mr.
Jingyi Hong, the Deputy Director in charge of the Department of
“Informatization Promotion” as well as his colleague, Ms. Li Song.
His responsibility is to promote and encourage the use of
technology throughout the national economy and society, including traditional
industries and in rural areas. In a sense, his job is similar to that played
by the US Agricultural Extension Service. It brought innovation to American
farmers; his department is bringing innovations and technology to everyone in China. There is no exact copy of this kind of national program in this country.
Emulating a South Korean model, his department is also setting
standards and a “platform” for technology that can be used by (non IT)
companies to improve their productivity and quality.
Mr. Jingyi reviewed the statistics and recent growth of China’s technology infrastructure, including the number of land-line phone users (750 million),
cell phone users (390 million) and cable lines (360 million). Currently, 85%
of China’s 52,000 villages have phones and Internet access. Their goal is to
bring this to 100% in two years.
As in all of our other visits, we gave him the portfolio of Westchester
companies and the electronic magazine so that his ministry would consider
buying products and services here to help them achieve their ambitious future
goals.
continue
March 2006 Report
by Norm Jacknis, Westchester
County Chief Information Officer
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