China to promote e-commerce: Official
China to promote e-commerce: Official
BEIJING (AFP): China wants to see a greater uptake of e-
commerce and will strive to create a sound environment for online
transactions, state media reported Saturday, quoting Chinese
trade officials.
Minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation (MOFTEC)
Shi Guangsheng said he wanted to make it easier for foreign trade
companies to use e-commerce in China, the China Daily said.
He predicted that more than 70 percent of Chinese foreign
trade companies will be able to conduct import and export
business via electronic means by 2005, according to the China
Daily.
Shi said China had formulated code protocols for all Chinese
enterprises engaged in foreign trade and had developed a security
authentication system for the country's e-commerce
infrastructure.
He said China recognized the importance of information
technology and was actively promoting the healthy development of
e-commerce.
Minister of Information Industry Wu Jichuan said China's
information technology and telecommunications infrastructure was
rapidly expanding, removing barriers to the healthy development
of electronic business.
In the past five years, Wu said, China had invested 800
billion yuan (US$96.6 billion) in its telecommunications
infrastructure. China now has the world's second largest
telecommunications network and ranks second in terms of the
number of phone users, China Daily said.
Shi and Wu were speaking at the opening ceremony of the Asia-
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) high level symposium on
electronic commerce and paperless trading.
Shi also called on developed APEC member economies to give
more support to the developing economies and called for more
dialogue and interaction between governments and enterprises in
the telecommunications and information sectors.
Information technology and e-commerce are key topics slated
for discussion at the upcoming APEC meeting to be held in
Shanghai in October.
In a separate meeting Friday, US senior official for APEC, C.
Lawrence Greenwood Jr., said information technology and e-
commerce were expected to fuel the rapid development of the Asia-
Pacific region, the daily said.
The United States wishes to share the experiences it has in
these fields with APEC members, said Greenwood, who came to
Beijing for an APEC leaders' meeting scheduled for tomorrow,
China Daily said.
Greenwood said the US will help APEC members train people.
Up to December 31, 265,000 Chinese websites and 8.92 million
Internet-accessible computers were available to the 22.5 million
Internet users in China.