E-government has been defined as the management of information systems to serve the needs of government and the public and involves every area of government information systems on a national basis.

The proposals put forward by the group are the details of its implementation, trial and evaluation; the standardization of national digital information systems. In February 2002, the State Council Informatization Office, together with the Standardization Administration of China, established the “General Group of E-government Standards.”

The group has recently advanced its proposed system for standardized e-government based on the results of related research. The group has let it be known that those areas of greatest urgency will be dealt with first.

With the approval of an initial evaluation by the group, the two departments jointly issued a notice of probation for the directory and six e-government standards as well as solicitation for suggestions, and has sent it to all areas concerned, asking them to evaluate it on the basis of a trial implementation project. Feedback is requested for submission by the end of August in time for its authorization.

Professor Huai Jinpeng from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) said that having transformed from the earlier network system, China’s new information system aims to enhance the government’s supervision abilities and provide greater and more efficient response and communication. At present, there is no integrated system.

The department leader for the application and promotion of the State Council Informatization Office, Chen Xiaozhu, said the work of e-government standardization would continue to adopt the management method of “being guided by government and promoted by the market,” and to establish a dynamic maintained mechanism to meet its practical application.

During promotion of the 12 project systems for e-government that concern office operational resources, macro-economic management, customs, taxation, finance, regulations, auditing, public security, social security, agriculture, water resources and geological resources, it is expected that the system will fully realize the needs of national standardization as well as fully implement the standardization of government e-solutions.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, April 3, 2003)