Chinese leaders approve a new government digitization drive
Premier Li Keqiang and the State Council called for provincial leaders to step up their efforts to digitize Chinese government information.
Among other things, the State Council said it would get local governments hook their platforms up to the National Integrated Government Service Platform by 2022. The edict is part of an effort to unify and upgrade local government and state agency systems.
The goal, the State Council said, is to offer Chinese citizens the best of e-government, allowing them to access their medical information, social security and other government services just with a click of a button.
Among the goals:
-- Beef up existing social security, medical care, education, and employment service platforms.
-- And improve government databases that track everything from population to natural resources.
The effort has been positioned as part of a government effort to try to improve the quality of life of the average Chinese person as well as ensuring the government can use the information for its own ends.
Dina Temple-Raston
is the Host and Managing Editor of the Click Here podcast as well as a senior correspondent at Recorded Future News. She previously served on NPR’s Investigations team focusing on breaking news stories and national security, technology, and social justice and hosted and created the award-winning Audible Podcast “What Were You Thinking.”