By Lai Youwei

Research Report No 043, 2006

Several Opinions of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening the Work of Developing and Utilizing Information Resources (hereinafter referred to as No. 34 Document) already laid out guiding opinions on strengthening the work of developing and utilizing information resources. In order to implement these guiding principles and to give priority to promoting the development of China’s information resources industry while strengthening the work of developing and utilizing information resources, this paper, targeting on several problems now existing in China’s information resources industry, raises some specific policy recommendations to promote the development of China’s information resources industry.

I. Formulating and Earnestly Implementing the Development Strategy for Promoting Information Resources Industry

Developing information resources industry is conducive to promoting the development and use of information resources, promoting the transformation of traditional industries and optimizing China’s economic and industrial structure, and is the natural choice for increasing China’s overall strength and international competitive edge. By borrowing international successful experiences in developing information resources industry and at the same time learning from the experiences and lessons of the development of China’s strategic industries such as energy, we believe that it is necessary and a must for the Chinese government to organize relevant departments and enterprises to make research and work out the strategy for the development of the information resources industry, and to vigorously promote the development of the information resources industry. The core points of this strategy are as follows:

1. Working out specific policy measures for promoting the development of the information resources industry

As a latecomer in developing the information resources industry, China faces an urgent task in developing the information resources industry, and China should, at the sate level, provide enough and forceful support for the development of the information resources industry. We recommend that China, with reference to the preferential policies provided to the hi-tech industry and the software industry, should study and make policies and plans for promoting the development of the information resources industry, and work out specific policy measures for promoting the development of the information resources industry so that the No 34 Document could be truthfully implemented.

2. Trying to make breakthroughs in some key fields of the information resources industry

In the process of developing the information resources industry, the government of the Republic of Korea gave priority support to the development of cultural industry as represented by Internet games and film and television, and succeeded in making some key breakthroughs. The rise and prominence of its cultural industry helped transform ROK from a rigid industrial country into a "country of culture exports" with unlimited creation, and the "ROK wind" is sweeping across Asia. The Chinese government could borrow the successful experiences of ROK in its development of information resources industry, give priority support to the development of a few fields of the information resources industry and guide these industries into domestic and global powerhouses and consequently increase China’s international competitive capacity.

3. Defining in a scientific way the connotation and borders of China’s information resources industry

At present, there are different views and opinions in China on how to define the information resources industry, or to be specific, how to define the scope of the information resources industry. This paper divides the information resources industry into the traditional information resources industry and the modern information resources industry. The traditional information resources industry includes library, archives, broadcasting and TV industry, movie projection industry, the production and circulation industry of movies and videos, music publishing industry, the publication of newspapers, magazines and periodicals, the publishing industry of books, booklets and other open publications. The modern information resources industry are mainly based on the net-working and digitalized new content industry, including three major categories: the first category includes digital media and digital video industry for entertainment consumption, including the industry of digital broadcasting and digital TV, digital videos, wide-band content services, Internet-based games and value-added mobile and wireless services; the second category includes industries that serve commercial activities, mainly commercial databases; the third category includes industries that serve study, education, science and research, including the industry of Internet-based education, digital publishing, digital library, digital archives and digital museums. Of course, this definition and scope are still subject to discussion and debate. The most urgent task now is to define the connotation and borders of China’s information resources industry in a scientific way by relevant government departments, academic circles and enterprises, so as to build a solid foundation for promoting the healthy development of the information resources industry.

II. Improving Understanding ofInformation Resources and the Information Resources Industry

1. We should fully understand the importance and urgency for the development of information resources industry from the strategic point of view of implementing the concept of scientific development and speeding up the development of modern service industry

We should open our mind, transform the traditional way of thinking, improve the understanding and leadership capacity over the information resources industry among the leaders of the central and local governments, integrate the development of information resources industry from the point of view of implementing concept of scientific development with speeding up the development of modern service industry, and treat the accelerated development of information resources industry as an important task.

First, we will guide the central and local leaders to correctly understand the far-reaching significance of speeding up the development of information resources industry in promoting economic growth and the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, in alleviating the employment pressure, in serving the people’s routine life, in satisfying the people’s spiritual and cultural demands and in promoting social development. In our research, we discovered that the government departments of Jiangsu, Shanghai, Beijing and Hunan provinces and municipalities paid high attention to the development of information resources industry, have taken specific measures to promote its development and guided the cluster development of the information resources industry. We should introduce the successful experiences of these provinces and municipalities in developing the information resources industry to other regions and areas, and develop a pattern that all ministries and commissions of the central government should support localities in developing the information resources industry and localities should help one another and compete in different sectors in the development of the industry.

Second, we will deepen the understanding of the information resources industry among leaders, entrepreneurs and all social circles so that they realize China’s information resources industry is a modern service industry with bright market prospect and has huge potential for development, learn and know the characteristics and laws of the development of the information resources industry, and improve their recognition level of the information resources industry.

Third, we will make full use of the media such as broadcasting, TV, newspapers and magazines and the Internet to give full coverage of the theories on the development of information resources industry, international development trends, state’s policies for the development of information resources industry and the experiences of all regions in developing information resources industry, foster and popularize models in developing the information resources industry, and create a favorable environment for promoting the development of information resources industry.

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