Information technology industry experts in Hong Kong have criticized government plans to set up a new HK$560 million electronic government Internet portal to replace the current system run by a unit of Hutchison Whampoa.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Friday, Viviane Reding, EU commissioner responsible for information society and media, said "Participation of people in the decision-making is the real goal of e-government."
Read more: EU official hopes European experience in e-government can help China
The EU-China Information Society Project, running from July 1 of 2005 to June 30 of 2009, is funded by both sides, with 18.75 million U.S. dollars from the EU and 8.75 million dollars from China.
Read more: Sino-EU Project to Improve China's Information Infrastructure
The EU-China information society project aims to help China improve its regulatory and legal environment in this area. Launched in August 2005, the project seeks in particular to assist Chinese government in copyright, telecommunications law and information security issues as well as in access to e-government.The four-year project receives 15 million euros from the EU and around 700,000 euros from China.
Read more: EU shows China way towards participative e-government
A joint statement issued by the two partners said the project is intended to help the Chinese government improve the legal and regulatory environment in areas such as telecommunications law, copyright, information security and access to government information.
Read more: EU, China jointly launch 15.7 mln eur information society project