The World Bank has been supporting this policythrough theprogram China Rural Information and Communications: Technical Assistance on Design and Impact Evaluation, which aims to support the government make decisions about potential scaling up of innovative ICT pilot projects and to generate and disseminate knowledge about the impacts of ICT in rural China.
... See More + Three activities were undertakenwith a focus on a trio of provinces (Guizhou, Jilin, and Shandong): (a) a demand survey to assess rural ICT access and attitudes; (b) a library study including scoping the status of ICT use in rural libraries; and (c) a limited impact evaluation to examine how ICT interventions have affected rural users.
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Working Paper 88281 JUL 08, 2014
Beschorner, Natasha ; Minges, Michael ; Davies, Robert ; Zhang, Gaungqin ; Kimura, Kaoru ; Narimatsu, JunkoEnglishDisclosed
The World Bank has been supporting this policythrough theprogram China Rural Information and Communications: Technical Assistance on Design and Impact Evaluation, which aims to support the government make decisions about potential scaling up of innovative ICT pilot projects and to generate and disseminate knowledge about the impacts of ICT in rural China.
... See More + Three activities were undertakenwith a focus on a trio of provinces (Guizhou, Jilin, and Shandong): (a) a demand survey to assess rural ICT access and attitudes; (b) a library study including scoping the status of ICT use in rural libraries; and (c) a limited impact evaluation to examine how ICT interventions have affected rural users.
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Working Paper 88281 JUL 08, 2014
Beschorner, Natasha ; Minges, Michael ; Davies, Robert ; Zhang, Gaungqin ; Kimura, Kaoru ; Narimatsu, JunkoChineseDisclosed
Improving access to information and communications technology (ICT) and related services in the countryside, or rural informatization, is a long-standing Chinese policy objective.
... See More + National and provincial governments and China's ICT industry have invested significantly in rural infrastructure and facilities over the past decade with the goal of reducing the country's digital divide. The purpose of this study, undertaken at the request of the Chinese government, is to review this experience and inform future approaches to rural informatization. The study focuses on three provinces with different socioeconomic characteristics: Shandong, Jilin, and Guizhou. The scope of the study included: (a) a demand survey to assess rural ICT access and usage; (b) a review of ICT in primary and secondary schools; (c) a survey of public libraries, including the extent of ICT use in rural libraries; and (d) an assessment of specific ICT interventions to examine how they have affected rural users. Much of the published information about rural ICT development in China describes infrastructure deployment, with top-level target monitoring statistics. This report sheds light on findings at the grassroots level through surveys and interviews, exploring the nature of demand for ICT services from rural populations, and considers whether this demand is being adequately addressed. Though there are differences in infrastructure and access across the three provinces, the structural challenges are similar. The lessons learned are not only consistent across the three provinces but also similar to research findings on rural informatization in other provinces. Thus, they are likely to be relevant for making recommendations about future approaches in other rural areas in China.
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Since the late 1990s access to information and communication technologies has seen tremendous growth, driven primarily by the wireless technologies and liberalization of telecommunications markets.
... See More + Mobile communications have evolved from simple voice and text services to diversified innovative applications and mobile broadband internet. The number of mobile cellular subscriptions reached approximately 4.7 billion globally, including people in remote and rural areas. The number of Internet users has risen constantly and now tops 1.8 billion people, with the number of broadband connections more than 470 million in 2009. The little data book on information and communication technology 2011 charts the progress of this revolution for 213 countries around the world. It provides comparable statistics on the sector for 2000 and 2009 across a range of indicators, enabling readers to readily compare countries. This book includes indicators covering the economic and social context, the structure of the information and communication technology sector, sector efficiency and capacity, and sector performance related to access, usage, quality, affordability, trade, and applications.
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China's recent economic growth has expanded industrialization and urbanization, upgraded consumption, increased social mobility, and initiated a shift from an economy based on agriculture to one based on industry and services.
... See More + Still more than half of China's people still live in rural areas where average income per capita is less than a third of the urban average, a gap that is among the largest in the world. Reducing these differences is critical to building a harmonious, inclusive society. This report draws from background research conducted by the advisory committee for state informatization, and attempts to provide an overview of China's rural information and communications technology (ICT) development primarily in the past 15 years. The report first describes the status of China's rural informatization infrastructure. It then reviews existing rural ICT initiatives in China and summarizes them by organizational models. International examples are included to draw lessons from. Finally, the challenges of rural informatization are examined, and policy recommendations identified to address them.
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This brief focuses on by 2005, despite preliminary reforms, Sub-Saharan Africa still lagged behind other regions in the development of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and services.
... See More + This Economic and Sector Work (ESW) outlined a strategy and roadmap to address critical barriers to broadening access, lowering prices, and mainstreaming the use of ICT for development. Follow-up lending projects and non-lending technical assistance have contributed to recent advances, including increased investment in regional ICT infrastructure, strengthened regulatory framework and sector performance, and improved efficiency of government functions. For instance, there has been an increase in the number of countries with regulatory authorities, telephone penetration rates have more than doubled, and e-applications have cut the turnaround time for government services in some countries from several weeks to just one or two days.
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