3. GI is a requirement to build a modern center city. Cities are not only centers of regional economy and social development, but

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1 THE FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENTAL INFORMATIZATION ON BOOSTING CITY'S OPENING AND DEVELOPMENT DRAFT Governmental informatization (GI) is an important composition of national economic informatization and social informatization. GI can boost the improvement of management, decision-making and public service of governments by applying modern information technology to exploit and manage governmental information source. As cities in developing countries and system-changing countries, the acceleration of GI brings new opportunities to the economic and social development, and urges a change from a traditional government in the industrial period to an advanced government in information period. Nanjing is the capital of economically developed Jiangsu Province as well as a center city in Yangtze River valley. Nanjing has owned some foundation on city informatization, and accelerated the process of GI in recent years. With the positive effect shown by the electronic government which initiated from the government online project, Nanjing is making great efforts to become a modern informational center city. Facts indicate that GI is a key sector in city informatization, and plays an important role in advancing the opening,development and perfection of city's functions. I. Background of GI with city's opening and development At the turn of centuries, the development of world economy and society is facing a new reform and opportunity. Economic globalization, rapid development of information technology and network economy become new impetus to the world economy. Cities are centers for regional development, and information is precondition for city's development. Therefore, acceleration of city informatization will inevitable promote the regional economic and social development. 1.GI is the requirement of Intellectual Economy and Network Time. The information revolution, with the rapid-growing Internet technology, is pushing human society from the industrial period to the informational period, bringing comprehensive and deep influence to the development of social economy, politics, military and culture, and greatly changing the production style, thinking style, value concept and living habits of human beings. On the one hand, with the growth of Internet and network economy, the contemporary function and operation of city governments would be more and more inapplicable to the new social model, difficult to exert its previous influence and benefit. Therefore, GI should develop in to a higher level. On the other hand, informatization standards have become an important indicator to evaluate the modernization of a certain country or region, and have been

2 playing a significant role in creating technological, industrial and economic advantages in the future. GI, in the process of boosting national economic informatization, is in a position that could not be replaced by any organization, so governments should create a model by improving themselves, and be in the lead to promote the development of city informatization. In the world, governmental automation, network electronization and information sharing are unchangeable general trends. In recent years, some developed countries proposed national information infrastructure building plans, and try to form electronic governments by networks in order to promote the advantages in international competition. Nanjing is a city striding to the economic internationalization and modernization. 2. GI is a requirement for cities to be opening to the outside world under new conditions. Along with China's accelerated steps to WTO, China's opening to the outside world will be furthered. Boosting GI is of immediately significance for governments to increase administrational transparency, erect sound image and promote the opening to the outside world according to the requests of WTO. Information open and public sharing are basic demands of the world trade terms. In the 29 independent law documents, the concept of information opening permeates in creation of a multiple trade system. There is an emphasis on equality of all members and equality to enjoy any benefit on information providing; there is an emphasis on the information of market opening which should be open, consistent and restrained; there is an emphasis on the information released from a government should be transparent, open and avoid unfair competition; there is an emphasis on the policy of trade which should be stringent and predictable. Information opening is not only shown in these principle terms, but also seen in the specific information sharing and demand in the detailed industrial trade field. Considering the situation of Nanjing now, the working style of municipal government does not adapt to the WTO terms. Acceleration of GI construction and promotion of administrational information opening are favorable to narrow the gaps between the contemporary governmental act and the basic principle of WTO terms, to meet the trend of economic globalization and meet the need of further opening to the outside world after joining WTO. After joining WTO, with more foreign businessmen entering China, more requirements could be put forward to governments on service and improvement of investment environment. The penetration of GI will effectively change many traditional operations of governments, improve governmental efficiency, increasing transparency and erect an efficient government image, obviously positive for cities to be further open to the outside world, improve of investment environment, and merge into the world economic trend. 3. GI is a requirement to build a modern center city. Cities are not only centers of regional economy and social development, but

3 also centers of information. The strategic development goal of Nanjing by 2000 is: to be a modern center city with developed economy, beautiful environment,, and a combination of ancient capital features with modern civilization. Building Nanjing into a modern center city must be predicated on being a modern information center city, and being a informational hub of Jiangsu Province and China. GI is an embodiment of functions of a modern center city. In the present stage, governments own variety of information resources, and should act as a forerunner on exploitation and utilization of information resources. On the one hand, GI construction should not only enhance the internal information exchange between government organizations, but also promote the socialization of governmental services, and meet the needs of information society for the government services such as consultant and policy instruction. Furthermore, the progress of GI, enable governments to change their functions and intensify the mission of general instruction and service. On the other hand, promotion of GI can bring along the development of social information services and upgrade the city's general informatization level so as to turn Nanjing into be a modern center city with lower transactional cost, more business opportunities and more comprehensive service functions. Meanwhile, the process of GI provides new opportunities for the development of city's information industries. II. Effect of GI on the opening policy and development of Nanjing Since China's reform and opening to the outside world, great progress has been made in Nanjing on construction of informational networks, informazation, social informatization and information industrualization. In the ninth five-year plan, Nanjing, in virtue of a comprehensive high-speed transmission network, accelerates the construction of ten mainstay information appliancation systems, and undertaken a large-scale and standarded information system construction on administration, economy, statistics, technology, finance, commerce, police, city reconstruction, education, agriculture, industry, transportation and society. An information system linking up to a series of state informational projects comes into being, which provides multi information services to governments, enterprises and all the society and advances the process of Nanjing's informatization as a whole. As an important part of city informatization, GI in Nanjing made a early start, and recently has made breakthrough progress. In mid -80s, Nanjing undertook the construction of fiber optic net in the office block of the municipal government. The government website started to be build in More than one year later, there was constructed an interactive network with the municipal government site as a core, independent site of bureaus, commissions and offices as branches, linking the whole city and every district and county government as well as various bureaus, commissions and offices. Now, there are 66 sub-government sites altogether in operation,

4 consisting of 66% of all the government sites. One third of these sub-sites are available to the information sharing and real time updating. Government online's services are featured of the opening to the outside world, economic development, citizen service and open administration, and positive to the development of various municipal programs and to opening Nanjing to the outside world. 1. Improvement of functions and images in Nanjing's opening to the outside world The website "Nanjing China" is the core site of Nanjing government online. As a united, authoritative and long-term information resource of Nanjing municipal government in Internet, it concentrates on releasing new accomplishments of economy, city construction and social develoopment in Nanjing, situations of construction and development in districts, counties and trades as well as policies and laws concerning the opening to the outside world. It enlarges Nanjing's scope of association with other countries, boosts investment attraction home and abroad, and helps regional economy to be joint with international economy. 2. Display of municipal government's functions to pilot soundly the development of economy Plenty of information of economy, technology, policy and law in governments can be provided by the means of government online for the society, which assists governments to increase communication with the society, helps social assets to be appropriately collocated, and improves the operational quality and efficiency of national economy. For instance, creation of dynamic price monitor network and price information forecast and decision-making support system, with emphasis on the prices of important commodities and charge levels, is successful to supervise the price of important goods and service charges which concern a lot about normal citizens' life. With the help of the network and system, the government offers regularly commodities prices, charge collection levels, trend of general prices levels and price information from 11 cities along Yangtze River, and effective services in further making and publicizing price policies, improving of price environment in Nanjing and intensifing price control and management. Also a professional price information consult system with business information as a suite and price as a link in different trades is available by creation of the network and system to transmit information on commodities and prices as well as to provide price consult. 3. Improvement of the quality and efficiency of the governmental public services Government online facilitates government organizations to utilize advanced information technology. By using the interactive management function of networks, governments could improve their quality of public services. The achievements of city construction and management made in recent years in Nanjing and intensification of governmental management and service is

5 undivided to the progress of GI. For instance, Nanjing Municipal Public Bureau has made public all of the service items, service procedures, service standards, charge levels, commitment terms and claim phone numbers onto the web, creating a transparent environment of web service. Another example is the social pension insurance. Informatization makes it possible for every policy-holder to view his or her account and view whether the funds from his or her company have arrived at the account. This manner raises the capture rate of pension fund, welcomed by majority policy-holder. Practices prove that taking advantage of interactive of service network, governments can communicate more with citizens, listen to comments of citizens, accept supervision from citizens, and improve the quality and efficiency of governmental services. Since establishment of government websites, more than 3000 pieces of advice and comments have been received. More than 500 enthusiastic Internet surfers are keeping frequent contact with the websites. 4. Good try on transformation of government functions and promote governmental incorruptness Release of governmental information makes public various activities of government organization, and makes these activities under restrain of laws and regulations, and supervision of the mass. Nanjing Municipal Land Administration Bureau makes their office affairs, charge standards, land classification public on the web, amended 15 affairs handling procedures and application list. They publicize "Charge Items of Nanjing Municipal Land Administration Bureau", and express that land users can refuse to pay charge not listed in the items, and land users have right to claim to the concerning government organizations. Due to these promulgation land users become very clear to how to handle the affairs and what kind of charge should be paid. At the same time, government staff can intensify self-discipline, and handle all of the affairs according to regulations under supervision of society. III. Further perfection of municipal government's informatizational function Though GI construction in Nanjing has made some progress, maturity of network tech and popularization as well as progress of domestic informational infrastructure put forward new requirements to GI. Nanjing is a relatively high-level informational city in China with computer popularity rate and number of Internet surfers being in the leading place among cities in the country. The necessity of municipal government to communicate outside world, especially the mass would be increasingly important, which causes a big demand for the development of GI on wideness, deepness, speed, and comprehensiveness. Nowadays, the GI construction in Nanjing is still at the initial stage. There is a long way to go comparing to the need of the city's opening and

6 development, and to the advanced cities home and abroad. Disparities are shown on the following aspects: government websites are not intact generally; development of sub-sites are not balanced; open administrational information is not plenty; information sharing is still in low-level; data update is not quick enough; network infrastructure is not perfect, and social popularity range is not wide. Main reasons forming these shortcomings include, first, city informatization has just been started and needs more time to develop; secondly, governmental operation is not suitable to high-level infomationization, governmental policy and laws not complete, and the layout and affairs-handling procedures not beneficial to governmental information sharing. The third reason is that exploitation and usage of governmental information lack flexible system and policy, which can be proved that most of GI funds are put to hardware. Concurrently funds and technology used on information acquisition, process, maintenance, update and operation are in shortage. Ways to process and appreciate the information source is more limited. The last reason is that quality of government staff could not adapt GI construction. Traditional working style is still dominating governmental operations. In order to adapt the informational period of 21st century, municipal governments should stick on perfecting GI functions so as to exert more effect to development and opening of cities. The target of GI is to build a E-government whose function is improvement of government's ability to undertake macro economic control and improvement of management & decision-making level by means of full exploitation and utilization of information resources. At the same time, GI should call on combination of E-government and E-commerce, and unity of information technology and information consult, extending the functions of E-government. GI functions should be intensified on the following three aspects: 1. Intensify informatizational government operation, and create an open, efficient and incorrupt government image. Give impetus to promulgation of administrational information. Functions, layout constitutions, archives and files of various government organizations should be made public to the full on Internet in order for citizens to know administrational information more directly, precisely and rapidly, and to exploit fully the value of the information. This could improve administrational transparency, and wider the influence of governmental policy to economic growth and city construction. Better the efficiency of E-government operation. With the advancement of GI, automatic government work can be achieved such as establishment of unimpeded governmental system, E-catalogue service, electronic file making and electronic management so as to better the efficiency of communication. E-government can even reform and rationalize governmental process, reduce staff members, cut government organizations, increase work speed and lessen governmental cost. Internally, convenient contact among government organizations through network can coordinate operation, save

7 lots of time and energy, and improve business efficiency. Externally, the mass can pay duties, submit project applications and do more things concerning governments through web. Intensify communication between governments and mass. The mass may deliver online comments, take part in online decision-making and policy enacting of government in which their comments and advice could be adopted on time. Governmental activities like execution of policy & decisions may also be under supervision of the mass, such as online purchase and online tendering. 2. Intensify economic service of E-government, and boost informatizational process of enterprises and society. Create an electronic communication channel between government and society, and provide comprehensive informational service timely and effectively. By enriching information of government websites, governments could concentrate and publicize lots of information of files, laws and regulations on economy & technology to help the mass be in command of information timely and precisely, and help pilot and regulate market activities. Online governmental files, archives and databases may exert more service to enterprises. For instance, industrial and commerce administration could publicize the information of all the registered companies online, so in business activities companies can understand credit situation of the counterpart by viewing web to avoid mistaken decision-making, stop business swindles, and protect their own benefit. Establish an online information market. Governments may take the lead to organize various specific information markets and attract all circles to take part in. Different information regarding investment projects promotion, supply and demand could be released through the web media as the quickest way. A never-ended exhibition or commodities fair will be opened online. This information market is authoritative and attractive, easy to develop and produce better social and economic profit, and can avoid over-construction. 3. Extend government functions and combine E-commerce and E-government actively. Establishment of E -government may fully exert macro control function of government to E-commerce, the most important business means in the future, and create a open, fair, legal and relaxed environment to boost the healthy development of E -commerce and online economy. Pilot the smooth and orderly development of E-commerce. Process deeply the governmental information and transmit to consumers as a product of E-commerce operation, increase the authenticity and effectiveness of E-commerce and reduce the "foam" in online economy. Use E-identity attestation to intensify supervision upon E -commerce to assure the rights of consumers and protect the intellectual property. Set up necessary law and regulation system to increase confidence to online transaction, prevent swindle, solve disputes and protect privacy by law.

8 IV. Emphasis of expediting GI development GI is a long-term construction course. Municipal governments should promote GI according to the emphasis of city's opening and construction and cooperate with informatization of national economy and society. 1. Be ready to make plan, design and coordination Carry out the informatization policy of "Overall planning, State leading, Standard uniting, Construction allying, Reciprocal linking and resource sharing", and be ready to make plans of GI. Municipal governments should lay down long-term, authoritative and instructive overall plan, then make sure annual programme and target by necessity and possibility, and apply step by step. In every period, work should be done with emphasis, attaining experiences from limited sites, and then generalize to a wider range. Resource allocation should be optimized. Governments must fully consider present infomational foundation, exert functions of existing network, equipments and resources and prevent over construction and waste. Government online should also be undertaken according to organization, plan and emphasis. 2. Accelerate construction of E-government GI construction should be managed by laws. A system of laws and regulations of informatization must be set up and perfected according to the state's policy, laws and standards to intensify standardization management, such as management terms of government information resource, security terms of governmental web information. It must be assured that administrational procedures, governmental files and information on economic development and city construction can be publicized timely, precisely and completely online in order to promote GI developments and GI appliance, from which governments must intuitively accept social supervision. A goal and responsibility system of GI construction should be set up. The goal of government websites' information construction should be an important item in checking the work of various government organizations. Management, staff, funds, responsibility system and coordination should be ready to wipe out blank websites and empty websites. The concept of security must be stressed, and guarding measures be taken from management and technology to assure reliable and efficient use of governmental information source. 3. Intensify infrastructure construction for informatization. Governments should accelerate construction of informational infrastructure to form a wide and high-level computer network. Governments also should build a administrational information appliance system to provide sound information supply and technological support for GI. Means of information acquisition, exchange and release among government organizations should be improved, and realize reciprocal linkage. GI is not only a technological and investment issue, but also requirements

9 for governmental management and operation system to undertake reform and amendments. An institution of governmental information exchange and promulgation should be set up, operational measures of governmental rules and criterion online be established to publicize files concerned timely and classifiably. Furthermore, governments must set up procedures to publicize various kinds of information to offer updated information to the society. Works to do still include reform of governmental framework, enlargement of management range, simplification of management arrangement as well as amendment to the structure and management terms of governmental staff to meet the need of informatization. 4 Intensify the exchange and cooperation with cities home and abroad In promoting the exchange of information and technology, attention should be paid to attracting and train talents of GI construction, developing actively the projects among cities, and following up the latest accomplishments of advanced information technology in the world. At the same time, consideration should be taken to import foreign advanced informational technology and management experiences, to send technicians and managers for exchange and training programs so as to satisfy the need of informatization construction of cities. GI is a worldwide trend, and an important aspect of Nanjing to narrow the gap to the advanced cities of the world. Municipal governments must seize opportunies, actively boost GI and do all the best to promote city's development and opening to the outside world.