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| Mr.Liao's portfolio covers the Department of Policy Research, Department of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs, Department of Information Technology, China International Electronic Commerce Center, China Association of International Trade, China International Institute of Multinational Corporations, and the Association of Economy and Trade Across Taiwan Straits. |
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| Strengthening the Cooperation on Commerce Informatization and China-Singapore Economic and Trade Ties |
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Distinguished Mr. Peter Ong, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore,
Distinguished Ms. Wu Choy Peng, Deputy Chief Executive of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore,
Distinguished Mr. Huang Yong, Chargé D'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Singapore,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends :
Good morning! It is my great pleasure to come to the beautiful country of Singapore at the invitation of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. I am delighted to attend the High-level Forum on China-Singapore Cooperation on Commerce informatization. First of all, on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce of China, I would like to extend my congratulations on the opening of the Forum. I also like to express my sincere thanks to all the guests present today and to all people both from China and Singapore who have made good efforts in organizing this Forum.
Co-sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of China and the Ministry of Trade & Industry of Singapore, this Forum is a big event for promoting the exchanges on commerce informatization between the two countries, which serves as a good communication platform for the two competent authorities in charge of informatization in the business field, scientific institutions, colleges and universities, as well as the corporations. It will play a very positive role in promoting the bilateral cooperation in the field of informatization and the economic and trade ties at large.
Since the establishment of diplomatic ties in October 1990, the commercial linkage has been constantly and comprehensively strengthened. According to Chinese statistics, bilateral trade volume reached 33.15 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, up 24.2% year on year, making Singapore China's seventh largest trading partner, and China Singapore’s third largest trading partner. In terms of investment, Singapore has become China's sixth largest source of foreign investment in 2005, when it invested in 1,217 projects in China, with an actual input of 2.2 billion U.S. dollars. At the same time, China’s direct investment to Singapore in non-financial sectors amounted to 210 million U.S. dollars.
With the rapid development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation, bilateral cooperation on commerce informatization has also stepped on a higher level. After friendly consultations, the two sides decided to establish China-Singapore Economic and Trade Co-operation Website in July 2005. Permanent Secretary Peter Ong and I signed "The Memorandum of Understanding on Setting up the China-Singapore Economic and Trade Co-operation Website by Joint Efforts ". With the efforts of both sides, the opening ceremony of China-Singapore Economic and Trade Co-operation Website was held in September, When Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng attended the ceremony and clicked to start the website. This Website is the first commercial cooperation website established by the Chinese government in cooperation with an Asian country. It is a meaningful exploration to strengthen China-Singapore economic and trade cooperation by information technology. At present, the Website has been incorporated into the framework of the China-Singapore Joint Commission, and the working mechanism for the coordination of the two sides has been set up. I believe that the joint efforts will surely make the Website a bridge connecting the two sides, promoting bilateral economic and trade cooperation, in particular among the SMEs.
Let me take this opportunity to make a briefing on China’s efforts in improving the application of information technology in business.
First, the continuous increase of Internet subscribers in China has laid a solid foundation for the development of commerce informatization.
According to the statistics from China Internet Information Center, by the end of 2005, the total number of Internet subscribers in China has reached 110 million, 64.3 million out of which were broadband users. The total number of Internet subscribers in China ranked the second in the world. There are 49.5 million computers connected to Internet, and 694,000 websites in China. The total number of IP addresses reached 74.39 million, which took the third place in the world after the US and Japan. The numbers of domain names and websites registered under .CN surpassed 1 million for the first time with 1.09 million, ranking the first in Asia. All the above-mentioned constitute the basic conditions for business informatizaion.
Second, the ever-improving policies and laws on e-commerce in China have created a favorable environment for the development of e-commerce.
First, policies and laws are formulated to encourage the development and application of e-commerce and e-government. In February 2005, the State Council of China released Some Opinions on Accelerating the Development of E-Commerce; In April 2005, China’s first E-Signature Law and its detailed implementation rules were officially promulgated. Second, the e-commerce application standard system was established and improved. The Ministry of Commerce launched an “ E-Commerce Application Standard Research Program” and started the research together with the National Bureau of Statistics of China on e-commerce statistics. China’s first e-commerce statistical indexes system will be running soon. Third, “China E-Commerce Report” is being drafted. It has been two years since 2003 for the Ministry of Commerce to compile such a report. The Report gives a comprehensive picture about the current developments of China’s Internet infrastructure, systematically explains China’s policies and laws concerning e-commerce, objectively records the actual situation and future perspectives of e-commerce by Chinese companies. IT serves as a guideline for the Chinese companies when engaged in e-commerce, and a directory about China’s e-commerce development.
Third, the Chinese government websites have played a steering role in commerce informatization.
At present, the Website of the Ministry of Commerce is the only government website that is listed in the global top 500 websites. It was awarded as ”Excellent Chinese Government Website in 2005" and was listed as the best one among the websites of Chinese central government departments by an authoritative institutions for three consecutive years. Its clickthrough rate of the first quarter this year reached 560 million, nearly 18 million times daily. Now, with over 345 subwebsites, the MOFCOM Website has become the first choice of business people from home and abroad to search for economic and trade policies, as well as the latest business information. It features comprehensiveness, transparency and openness.
Fourth, China is promoting the in-depth development of e-commerce to stimulate the economic and trade growth.
In order to popularize different types of e-commerce, MOFCOM has conscientiously summed up the successful experiences of all domestic companies in e-Commerce. Co-sponsored by MOFCOM and the Ministry of Education, twelve famous Chinese universities completed 126 e-commerce case studies, which are a almost all-inclusive research covering different sizes of companies, big, small and medium-sized as well as e-commerce third party companies, and different types of companies, manufacturing and trading companies, as well as chain store businesses.
The Chinese government also uses all kinds of exhibitions and fairs to promote e-commerce. On such occasions as the Chinese Export Commodities Fair(Canton Fair) and China Hi-Technology Fair, MOFCOM, MOFCOM takes active efforts in promoting the e-commerce. For example, in every session of the Canton Fair, e-commerce is provided to over 8000 exhibitors. The Online Chinese Export Commodities Fair enjoys great popularity both at home and aboard, whose click-through rate per day exceeds two million and over 10,000 people visits the website. The visit count of the website comes out top among those of international fairs, making it one of the most famous websites of exhibitions in the world. In addition, MOFCOM has supported Fujian Province to host the SMEs’ On-line Expo and On-line Investment and Trade Fair, and Ningbo municipality to hold the On-line Consumer Product Exhibition. The combination of traditional trade fairs with network has played an obviously important role in exploring new modes of trade fairs and popularizing e-commerce.
China is actively intensifying the cooperation with other countries and international organizations in popularizing e-commerce. MOFCOM has established cooperation mechanisms on e-commerce with the competent authorities in charge of commerce informatization in 13 countries and international organizations. MOFCOM is also actively involved in the e-commerce activities under the APEC umbrella. In 2004 and 2005, MOFCOM sponsored the “APEC E-Commerce Fair” and “APEC Paperless Trade High Level Symposium “, and will hold the ASEM E-Commerce Forum this year in an effort to provide an information service and communication platform for Chinese companies to enhance their international cooperation.
In addition, the Chinese government is also energetically exploring the rural market by means of e-commerce to improve the retailing facilities for rural consumers and tap the rural consumption potential. MOFCOM has decided to unfold a program to develop a new rural business information service network (nicknamed Information Benefit Project) to set up business information service stations in the rural market so that the public business information service will cover the rural area more extensively, and contribute to a more dynamic distribution network, expanded consumption, more convenient retailing services, more developed rural area and wealthier farmers.
Ladies and gentlemen:
In the world today, the popularization and development of the information technology has a widespread and profound bearing on the social and economic development. China-Singapore cooperation on commerce informatization is an important instrument to lift the two countries’ informatization level and push forward the economic and trade cooperation. I would like to raise three proposals with a view to further enhancing bilateral cooperation on commerce informatization.
First, establish a mechanism to enhance communication and exchanges. Both governments, in particular MOFCOM and Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore, should set up a consultation mechanism on commerce informatization under the existing dialogues like the Bilateral Joint Commission and China-Singapore Economic and Trade Consultation. It will not only involve government departments, but also academic and research institutions, colleges and universities and the businesses, which will help strengthen bilateral exchanges and linkages.
Second, enhance the level of cooperation to achieve common development. Corporations from both countries, especially SMEs, should be encouraged to take full use of the information platform of China-Singapore Economic and Trade Cooperation Website to explore the market, lower the cost, raise the efficiency and achieve win-win outcomes.
Third, broaden the cooperation channels and promote the training of talented persons. The key to China-Singapore cooperation on commerce information is human talents. I suggest that MOFCOM and Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore study on the channels of human resources development in the area of informatization for a larger team of human talents.
Finally, I hope all participants both from China and Singapore can firmly seize this opportunity, fully exchange views, and learn from each other in order to reap fruitful results in bilateral cooperation in the area of commerce informatization.
I wish the forum a great success! Thank you!
(Source: Network Center of MOFCOM)
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