China’s Rural Internet Information Centers

Written by Paul Ulrich, consultant, this paper summarises the content of a mid-term evaluation of an information and communication technologies (ICTs) initiative from a two-part rapid rural appraisal that took place in July and September 2002. Ulrich visited the project's 5 ICT centres to analyse and determine the state of the project. This paper presents those findings and suggests examples of best practices achieved at different project sites, with recommendations for enhancing the Internet centres' sustainability. The paper also includes a Social Impact Assessment questionnaire used for surveying 1000 households in project villages about the Internet information centres.

The project being evaluated in this document was supported by the Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology (MOST) and the United Nations Development Programme (China), and was an effort to reduce poverty in China by demonstrating viable models for providing useful information services to the rural poor. Based on the quality of their applications and ability to finance their share of the project, 5 counties were selected for this pilot effort; they included: Yuyang district of Shaanxi Province; Wu'an city of Hebei Province; Huoshan County of Anhui Province; Shangcheng County of Henan Province; and Tongnan County of Chongqing Municipality.

The report begins by describing the implementation of the project, noting that local participation was key to this "largely...home-grown effort". For starters, approximately 40% of the total funds came directly from the benefiting counties themselves - not only from the county-level government but from the participating towns and villages, as well. County executives provide guidance and organise local government experts from different sectoral departments for regular advisory meetings on, for example, Internet-based information needed by the county. At the village and town levels, governments often second staff to work at the centres, which are typically located in government-provided facilities (usually adjacent to the local government's central offices).

Ulrich indicates that the project has a pyramid-shaped support structure, with each "level" (Beijing MOST, county, town, village) providing training and support to the level below. Specifically, every project town has two village centres under it whose staff members (between 2 and 5 in number) provide training (in typing, computer operations, and searching for information online) and services to local villagers, soliciting suggestions from local users on types of information that would most benefit them. All centres use personal computers (PCs) made by Legend, a local Chinese company. Each centre has a dial-up line for accessing the Internet, as well as non-wired PCs for learning or practicing skills. Every centre has a phone and fax machine; some also have separate rooms for viewing videos or video compact discs (VCDs) where users can watch training programmes on, for example, new agricultural technologies. Most have an external bulletin board for regular posting of useful information retrieved from the Internet.

An excerpt from the report follows:

"In descending order of frequency, sought-after information includes market prices, new agricultural technologies, health information, educational data to help with schoolwork or applications, and job searches....To date, the centers are largely acting as information sources - a kind of online library - rather than as vehicles for communication via, for instance, e-mail. Hardly any users or staff have their own e-mail accounts even though those are freely available at websites like Sohu and Sina - the Chinese counterparts to Yahoo or Hotmail. Instead, each center will have a central e-mail address on behalf of those few users who need to have information sent to or from another web address...

At a project-wide level, this one has demonstrated a number of best practices. To name a few, it has a clear, organizational structure, highly motivated staff, strong government support at all levels, and a commitment to training, as detailed in instructional manuals. The project has shown exemplary cooperation with, among others, academic institutions who have often provided consulting and advice at little or no cost. Throughout the project there are also numerous examples - at both the individual and collective level - of large increases in income or in savings on cost, attributable to market-price or agricultural information gleaned from the Internet...

Each county has examples of best practices, as well as some deficiencies that it could correct by learning from the other counties. Of all five, Tongnan has had the most impressive results and some of the best practices to share with others. Although it had a few minor problems like daily record logs that lacked the clear format of, for example, Huoshan and Shangcheng centers, Tongnan's achievements have been impressive..:

• A 50-page manual developed especially for training village and town staff;
• An excellent often-visited website offering not only free e-mail accounts but also a separate page of agricultural technology video clips for those with high speed access;
• A practice of paying staff according to results based on monthly in-person reviews, conducted in conjunction with half-day training sessions;
• A well-planned advertising campaign including weekly 3-5 minute TV spots, dozens of wall posters, sign boards, and bus banners describing the project;
• A well-thought out training program that includes final exams to test that staff have properly absorbed the lessons; and
• A close working relationship with China Telecom, the county center's broadband provider, despite using the cheaper Internet access services of Unicom in the village and town centers.

Many of these best practices can be attributed to the center's chief technican and manager, Mr. Tang Zhenghai, a technology 'whiz kid' with 12 years of computer experience and the ability not only to solve villages' and towns' technical problems via twice monthly visits to the field, but to design the county's website and training manual himself. Some other fortuitous circumstances in Tongnan - namely, competition among four service providers - ...have meant that access fees are cheaper and services better there than in the four other counties, which have no choice but to use the services of a sole provider...

The Tongnan center has been functioning as an information technology center for the entire county government, which lacks its own website or separate center as is common in other project counties. However, all these services that the center provides come at a cost. The center manager has estimated their monthly expenditures at Rmb 21-22,000 or 4 times the amount found in a recent report on the center in Shangcheng..."