中国农村信息化面临的挑战【外文翻译】

外文翻译Challenges for rural informatization in China Material Source: Rural Informatization in China Author: Asheeta Bhavnani Lack of a coherent strategyLack informatization in China lacks an overall strategy and integrated approach. This is not surprising given the country’s size and diversity and the need to involve many stakeholders. To their credit, many ministries and provinces have taken ownership of the informatization agenda and initiated their own programs. But, lacking a coherent strategy and coordination mechanisms at the national and provincial levels, these programs do not benefit from an overall sense of priorities and thus optimal allocation of resources. There are no mechanisms to ensure complementarities and build on the comparative advantages among the various ministries.Lacking a coherent strategy, centrally funded programs do not take into account the diverse geographic and socioeconomic conditions of rural China. Varying geographic conditions in rural areas pose a challenge to uniform standards and regional programs. Thus it is important to segment the rural market and take different implementation approaches for each. For example, the frontier of private investment covers segments-such as urban high- and medium-income, and increasingly rural high and medium-income- that could be attractive for private investment or innovative private-private partnerships. At the same time, a national strategy needs to direct public resources to financially less viable and less attractive rural and near-rural low-income segments, where low population density, nonexistent infrastructure, and low literacy may not result in financially sustainable projects.Weak coordination across ministries and integration at the provincial level Given C hina’s scale, diversity, and multiplicity of stakeholders, challenges of duplications and inconsistencies are bound to arise. But the phenomenon of each ministry or each province doing things its own way has led to duplicated efforts and wasted resources. Redundant investments and scattered resources raise serious problems of affordability, sustainability, and scalability. No policy and institutional mechanisms are in place to raise awareness, overcome interdepartmental rivalries,and foster close coordination and collaboration at any administrative level.Successful rural ICT development programs require collaboration and partnership among stakeholders. Thus specific measures are needed to raise awareness, overcome interdepartmental rivalries, foster close collaboration, and provide incentives for horizontal resource sharing and network integration. A March 2008 government reorganization- establishing a new ministry of industry and informatization that incorporates several ICT-related agencies-aims to eliminate overlapping responsibilities, improve coordination, and realize economies of scale in this cross-cutting area. Whether the new ministry can achieve these goals will be determined only by the passage of time.In addition to centrally driven programs, every province considers rural informatization a crucial element of local socioeconomic development. Collaboration practices vary by province. In one province a government department in charge of monitoring the safety of roads, bridges, and utility infrastructure had to pay another department a lot of money to acquire electronic maps and management information system updates. This contrasts with another province where the Department of Industry and Commerce (in charge of issuing business licenses and registration) and the Tax Bureau decided to share information on registered companies. The agreement led to better enterprise management and increased tax collections. This collaboration was based on good relationships between these two units, not as part of a structured process established at all levels of government. In addition to the establishment of a cross-functional department to promote collaborative actions, new policies on access to cross-functional actions, new policies on access to government and public information are urgently needed to ensure proper sharing of information among government departments, for the interests of the general public.Unsustainable Business Models and Over-reliance on Government Financing The Chinese government does not want farmers to bear the brunt of the financial burden required to access needed information. The business models used for delivering content and services rely heavily on government subsidies. Thus the long-term operation of such services in townships and villages often depend on local governments’ continued financial support- an unsustainable financial burden.Various business models need to be explored to support the government’s long-term informatization goals. Government agencies are looking at new models for providing services, with the goal of providing some support rather than completesubsidization. Partnerships with domestic enterprises are also being pursued. China’s large telecom providers are keen to increase their coverage in rural areas as urban markets reach saturation. An example is Chongqing, where the government signed a profit sharing agreement giving 40 percent of profits to the telecom carrier and 60 percent to the Department of Agriculture of Chongqing.Rural informatization initiatives have had a narrow focus, with limited service offering focusing primarily on agriculture-undermining their sustainability. Most information service provides only single-information and low-level services, which cannot satisfy the practical demands of farmers and directly affect the overall sustainability of the initiative. There is little acquisition of global knowledge and experience in providing sustainable, shared access to ICT (as with multipurpose telecenters) and adapting these models to China’s diverse rural areas.Some examples such as Grameen and n-Logue (Fillip and Foote 2007) are enlightening because they leverage existing telecommunications networks and maximize their efficiency by providing a wide range of services. Such public and social services make the economic case for deploying ICT networks in rural areas more possible and compelling.Furthermore, additional services can be delivered that otherwise would not be possible (such as rural education).Maintenance and operation of services have also proven problematic. Many local governments have invested in hardware and equipment projects, but failed to make adequate arrangements for maintenance. As a result such projects often go to waste. Similarly, pilots by foreign donors and multinational corporations often suffer from lack of attention to ongoing upgrading and maintenance. The challenge is to consider the lifecycle of ICT products. If sustainable mechanisms are not in place for regular upgrading of systems, initial investments will be ineffective.Lack of Demand-Driven, Locally Relevant Information Resources Content has always been a key challenge in China’s rural informatization efforts. Though many information resources have been developed in recent years, farmers often cannot find urgently needed information. Among the reasons:⏹Lack of practical, localized content. There is a lack of relevant,contextualized information on the Internet for farmers. With no substantivediscussions of local examples, farmers do not believe in abstract solutionsand have little motivation to adopt them.⏹Limited efforts to assess local needs or to involve stakeholders inparticipatory processes to define their information needs⏹Weak capacity for collecting and disseminating information resources anddeveloping region-specific and customized information services⏹Information is distributed in a disorderly way and is difficult to search.There is no mechanism for integrating agriculture-related informationresources, agricultural information resources are scattered, distributed inevery department, province, city, and even enterprise.⏹Narrowly focused agricultural content, with little diversification to otherICT-enable rural services such rural education and rural finance.⏹Farmers prefer to get information through information agents orintermediaries, rather than through their own direct search on the Internet.⏹Weak integration of informatization programs with locally drivencommunity development initiatives.译文中国农村信息化面临的挑战资料来源: 中国农村信息化作者：Asheeta Bhavnani 1缺乏战略一致性中国信息化薄弱，缺乏一个总体战略以及集成方法。