October 12, 1999
Geneva - During the technological revolution era, the gap between the information rich and the information poor has been widening instead of narrowing, said a Chinese official in Beijing on Sunday. "This trend is reflected in the larger gap in network hardware facilities technology, the increasing dependence of developing countries on developed countries for network technologies and information systems software, and the difficulty developing countries have holding on to talented local information technology personnel," Wu Jichuan, minister of Information Industry, told a forum at the 1999 World Telecommunications Exhibition.
He called on the international community to pay more attention to this problem and take practical action to come up with feasible solutions. To tackle the problem of under-developed communications, Wu said, developing countries should work out strategies corresponding to current conditions. "They need to develop telecommunications with arduous efforts," he added. The Chinese minister also pointed out that developed countries and relevant international organizations should assume the responsibility of helping developing countries accelerate communications growth and offer financial, technological and personnel training support so as to "narrow the telecommunications gap between the developed and developing countries and build a closely connected human society through common efforts."
On behalf of the Chinese Government, Wu thanked the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for their contribution to the promotion of co-operation and development of global telecommunications, the unification of telecom technical standards, and the management of communications in recent years. According to the minister, the information industry will play the leading role in China's economic development in the new decade as the growth rates of the info-com service, information product manufacturing and software industry will be much higher than that of GDP.
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