Essay draft 1

Introduction

In today’s modern society, the trend of the development of digital technology has been more apparent over the years and will continue to intensify as time goes by. This trend will be getting more apparent as many countries foresee the advantages. These advantages include broader academic development, a more conducive commercial landscape and better integration of information amongst people in the country. However, issues of digital disparity often surface, especially in developing countries such as China. The Diffusion of internet access in China is not distribute evenly in the country.

The growth in the diffusion of internet access in developing countries mostly come from people living in the urban regions of China, improvement on the situation can be done through subsidies by the ministry of finance to enhance technological skills of the citizens and also the usage of mobile commerce to the poor so that it will be much more viable for rural regions, one of such is Pingnan country. Pingnan country is a province in Fujian, who is under extreme poverty with virtually no internet users.

Government efforts

According to the International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD) (2014), the government has attempt to venture into rural areas. Investments has been done on the infrastructure for technology so that these people are able to adapt to the changing environment and market conditions. 

One of the contractor that is part of the government’s plan in rural area expansions is the China Mobile Limited (CML), who successfully set up a stable mobile network in various rural areas, such as Shanxi, Jiling and Anhui. People are able to receive disaster warnings and weather forecast for their crops through technology (China Mobile Limited, 2009). 

Despite numerous efforts to bring telecommunications and networking into these rural societies, the digital divide persists in China. From the year 2011 to 2012, the growth of internet users grew from 26.5% to a mere 27.6% (China internet network information (CINMC)). The slow growth might indicate that the efforts are not efficient enough. The divide is still very apparent with only 27.6 % of the overall internet users from rural regions.

Challenges

The attempts to venture into poorer rural region remain a challenge for the government. According to a corporate report written by China Mobile Limited (CML) (2009), Pingnan country, remains a challenge for them. “The results of our initial assessment showed that income sources are limited in Pingnan County, with most people living below the poverty line. Virtually no one uses a computer and there are very few landlines. The county is sorely lacking the necessary investment and information to drive local development. Without convenient information channels, information, benefits, and policies from the government on poverty alleviation cannot easily make it into the hands of local people”. These people are poor and can only afford to obtain necessities for themselves to get on with their lives.

Policies

Citizens skillset

The government would have to make changes in their policies and direction in terms of subsidiary incentives to not only equip them with the necessary technological skills and convince these people to start adopting technology. To make improvements in the digital divide situation, a good start would be having a healthy number of internet users (Economic intelligence unit (2012)).

Therefore, the Chinese government should change its policies to stimulate the growth in internet users. The foundation of having high internet users is to first ensure that the citizens are IT literate (Economic intelligence unit (2012)). Policies should include the necessary incentives to better attract contractors to provide services to educate citizens so that they will be technologically literate.

Subsidies and mobile commerce

One of the most viable way for these rural citizens to be able to get internet access would be the usage of mobile commerce. According to Melanie (2014), an associate from Alizila,” Mobile commerce’s high penetration rates in these rural areas is due primarily to issues relating to access to technology. The regions’ poorer residents can’t afford personal computers”. “Cellular networks offer better coverage and decent speeds.” On top of the cheaper alternative of mobile commerce, subsidies from government is another way to further reduce the cost. With that, the networking and telecommunication in these regions becomes more viable.

The benefits of networking can then be presented to the Pingnan country’s people. With the cheaper alternative of mobile commerce along with government subsidies, the people would be more open to changes. When the people are open to the technological change, the government can then attract contractors to develop the region as the area is now more profitable with the higher rates of users open to technology.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the government has to ensure the benefits of both the contractors and the rural region citizens are being taken care well. The foundation step would be to ensure that citizens are first well equip with the skillset to be able to use technologies. 

Next, the government has to give out incentives and convince contractors on the potential of doing the job. The contractor would only do the job if it is profitable and when the contractor foresee the potential in developing the region. The citizens of the poor rural area would only be open to change and start using technology if the government is able to convince them to do so through subsidies and viable options. 

Through vigorous development, constant investment in rural areas and with time, the digital gap between the urban and rural region would eventually narrow.

Reference:

IFAD (2014, June). Corporate booklet – Investing in rural china Retrieved October 1, 2014. From: http://ifad.org/operations/projects/regions/pi/factsheets/cn.pdf

China Mobile Limited (2009, December). Corporate Social responsibility report. Retrieved October 1, 2014. From: (http://www.chinamobileltd.com/en/ir/reports/ar2009/sd2009.pdf

Alizila (2014, July 8). Mobile Commerce Is Thriving in Unexpected Places Retrieved October 1, 2014. From: http://www.alizila.com/mobile-commerce-thriving-unexpected-places-video

Chinese internet network information center. Statistical report on internet development in China (2013, January). Retrieved October 1, 2014.From: http://www1.cnnic.cn/IDR/ReportDownloads/201302/P020130221391269963814.pdf

Economic intelligence unit (2012). Smart policies to close divide. Retrieved October 1, 2014. From:http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un-dpadm/unpan049753.pdf