中国农村信息化面临的挑战外文翻译（可编辑）.doc

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 BhavnaniLack of a coherent strategy Lack informatization in China lacks an overall strategy and integrated approach. This is not surprising given the countrys 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 Chinas 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 publicUnsustainable 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 governments long-term informatization goals. Government agencies are looking at new models for providing services, with the goal of providing some support rather than complete subsidization. Partnerships with domestic enterprises are also being pursued. Chinas 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 Chinas diverse rural areas. Some examples such as Grameen and n-Logue Fillip and Foote 2007 are enlightening because they leverage existing telecommunications networks and imize 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 Chinas 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 substantive discussions of local examples, farmers do not believe in abstract solutions and have little motivation to adopt them.Limited efforts to assess local needs or to involve stakeholders in participatory processes to define their information needsWeak capacity for collecting and disseminating information resources and developing region-specific and customized information servicesInformation is distributed in a disorderly way and is difficult to search. There is no mechanism for integrating agriculture-related information resources, agricultural information resources are scattered, distributed in every department, province, city, and even enterprise.Narrowly focused agricultural content, with little diversification to other ICT-enable rural services such rural education and rural finance.Farmers prefer to get information through information agents or intermediaries, rather than through their own direct search on the Internet.Weak integration of informatization programs with locally driven community 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。这并不奇怪,因为信息化的发展涉及到一个国家的规模、多样性以及众多利益相关者的需求。许多部门、省市都将发展信息化的工作列入了议事日程中,并着手落实到实处。但由于目前国家及省一级地区并未采取一致的战略,缺乏相关的协调机制,这不利于从整体意义上决定这些方案优先次序,进而对资源进行优化配置。目前也没有任何机制来确保其互补性以及建立在各部委之间的比较优势。 由于缺乏一个连贯的策略,集中投资方案未考虑国内农村地区在地理和社会经济条件上的差异性。而农村地区地理条件上的差异,构成了对构建统一标准和区域方案的一种挑战。例如,私人投资的前沿领域,如城市的中高档收入,农村地区日益增长中高档收入会成为吸引私人投资或创新的私营部门之间合作的推动力量。与此同时,一项国家战略需要原始的公共资源。在经济上缺乏实施的可行性,不被人们所关注的农村和临近农村地区的低收入阶层,人口密度低,基础设施缺乏和受教育程度低等现象也不符合经济的可持续发展。 2省级各部门之间的弱协调 鉴于中国的规模,多样性和多重利益相关者,发展信息化将面临信息重复和不一致的问题,而这种巨大的挑战是必然会发生的。而目前各省级各部门之间出现了各走各路,各谋其政的现象,导致信息化工作的重复做功以及资源浪费等问题。在建设可购性,可持续性,可扩展性的信息化发展中,冗余投资以及资源分散已成为阻碍其健康发展的严重问题。对于任何一个行政级别,均要求加强对信息化的认识,克服跨部门间的竞争,并随时保持各部门之间的密切合作与协调,而目前政策和公共机构对于这方面的工作的开展尚未到位。 农村信息通信技术发展计划的成功开展,需要各利益相关方之间的保持合作和伙伴关系。因此,政府必须采取具体措施,以提高认识,克服跨部门的竞争,促进各部门间的密切合作,并为横向资源共享和网络集成的实施提供必要的物质奖励。2008年3月,政府改组合并了若干个涉及信息和通信技术的机构,成立了新工业和信息部,旨在消除重叠的职责,加强协调,实现这一交叉领域的规模经济。新的部门是否能够实现这些目标,将只取决于时间的推移。 中央各省政府均认为,农村信息化的实现一个发展社会经济的关键因素。而在发展农村信息化这个问题上,各省的协作的方式不尽相同。省政府机关中,监测道路、桥梁和公共基础设施的安全的主管部门必须向另一个部门了支付巨额钱款以用来更新电子地图和管理信息系统。这类似于其他省份的地方工商部门(在营业执照签发和登记费),税务机关决定对注册公司的提供信息共享服务,而签订的协议使得企业更好地被管理以及有利于税收的增加。这项合作是建立在两个单位之间良好关系的基础上,并非作为结构化过程的一部分存在于各级政府间。除了建立一个能促进协作行动的交叉职能部门外,出台享有交叉职能行为的新政策以及可获取的政府和公众信息的新政策,同时目前迫切需要政府部门之间存在适当地信息共享,以保障广大市民的利益。 3不可持续的商业模式和过分依赖政府融资 中国政府不希望农民在获取需求信息过程中承担财政负担的冲击。而目前用于业务内容和服务传送的商业模式严重依赖于政府补贴。因此,这种服务在乡镇和村庄的长远运作往往需要地方政府持续的财政支持,而这是一种不可持续的财政负担。 为支持政府的长远信息化的目标,我们需要去探索找寻多样化的商业模式。政府机构寻求提供服务的新模式,以提供其他方面的支持,而不是完全单纯的资金补助为目标。并致力于与国内企业结成合作伙伴关系。由于城市市场已达到饱和,中国的大型电信供应商热衷于增加在农村地区的覆盖范围。以重庆为例,当地政府签署了一项利润分享协议,其中电信运营商可获得40%的利润,重庆农业厅可获得60%的利润。 农村信息化举措也曾产生过狭隘的焦点,即优先为挖掘农业的可持续性提供有限的服务。大多数信息服务只能提供单一的信息和低级别的服务,而这些不能满足农民的实际需求,将直接影响其全面可持续发展的倡议。目前在全球中极少有涉及指导信息化可持续发展的知识和经验,缺乏有效的访问共享信息和通信技术(如同多用途电信服务中心),以及如何帮助中国农村不同地区适应新的模式。 由孟加拉国的例子给予我们启示:政府可通过提供广泛的服务,改善目前的电信网络,最大限度地发挥其效用。这样的公共和社会服务使得为部署农村地区信息通信技术网络经济方案的实施更具可行性和说服力。此外,额外的服务应该包括在内,否则将不被实施(如农村教育)。 维修和运营服务也被证明是一个困难的问题。诸多地方政府在硬件和设备投入大量资金,却未在维护工作投入足够的精力,以至于这些项目往往以失败告终。类似地,由外国捐助者和跨国公司提供的操作设备在使用过程中不被重视,政府机关对于其定期升级和维护工作缺乏必要的关注。而这样的现状即被认为是对信息通信技术产品的生命周期的一种挑战。如果可持续机制定期升级系统的工作不到位,政府的初期投资将无法产生预期效果。 4缺乏以当地相关信息资源为需求驱动 信息化的工作内容一直是中国农村信息化发展的关键问题。虽然近几年信息技术飞速发展,已储备有大量信息资源可供查询,但是农民往往不能迅速找到所需的信息。其中的原因:缺乏实用及本地化的内容。互联网缺少为农民提供相关背景的信息资源。未选取当地的实例进行具体的讨论研究,农民由于并不信任不切实际的解决方案而放弃付诸行动的想法。以有限的能力评估当地的需求或界定涉及利益相关者在参与信息化发展过程中其信息需求。收集和传播信息资源,发展区域的具体和个性化信息服务的能力均十分薄弱。信息分布方式无序,检索困难。尚未成立专门整合农业相关信息资源的机构,这些信息资源均分散在各部门,省市地区,甚至企业中。农业焦点内容范围狭义,极少为农村提供其他多样化的信息和通信技术服务,如农村教育和农村金融。相比通过自己直接上网搜检索信息,农民更喜欢通过信息代理商或中介机构获取信息资源。当地政府提出大力推进发展信息共享的信息化集成方案。