3 Billion Yuan to Support Construction of "Digital Shantou"

Yesterday, a signing ceremony was held for the framework agreement on informationization cooperation between Shantou government and China Telecom Guangdong Branch ("CTGB"). In the five years to come, CTGB will invest over 3 billion yuan to speed up the development of modern information service industry in Shantou and support the construction of a "digital Shantou". Present at the ceremony were Huang Zhiguaang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Shantou, and Chen Dexing, General Manager of CTGB. Deputy Mayor Zhou Zhensong and CTGB Deputy General Manager Chen Zhiran signed the agreement on behalf of the two parties.
Before the ceremony, Huang Zhiguang met with Chen Dexing and his party. On behalf of the Party Committee and Government of Shantou, Huang Zhiguang welcomed Chen and his party and thanked CTGB for its support to the economic and social development of Shantou. Huang pointed out that, at the site meeting and working conference of East Guangdong, Shantou was required to accelerate its construction as a regional central city to give full play to the adhesive, radiating and driving function of such a city. To accelerate the construction of a regional central city, the key is to speed up its own development as well as the development of industry and modern service industry and increase its comprehensive strength. The huge investment made by CTGB to promote the development of Shantou's information industry will play a positive part in the efforts made by Shantou to accelerate the construction of a regional central city and realize its revitalization and prosperity. He hoped that the two parties ccould work jointly to push the informationization drive of Shantou up to a new high and turn informationization into a powerful engine and booster of industrial development.
Speaking at the ceremony, Zhou Zhensong pointed out that the signing of the framework agreement for cooperation was a major event in the informationization of the city. Together with CTGB, the city will earnestly perform the agreement for further cooperation in building a convenient and efficient information network system, promoting the development of information industry, pushing forward the building of a serving government, quickening industrial transition and upgrading, propelling the construction of new rural areas and facilitating social harmony and progress.
In his speech, Chen Dexing noted that, at present, the Party Committee and Government of Shantou have made important arrangements for a new round of leapfrog development and taken a series of strong measures in response to the financial crisis, which are producing marked effect and have created an excellent environment and golden opportunities for information service operators. CTGB will duly perform the agreement, support the construction of a "digital Shantou" and contribute to the early construction of Shantou as a regional central city and attainment of the goal of "great changes in 5 years".
It is learnt that CTGB has invested over 1.5 billion yuan in Shantou in recent years. In the future five years, CTGB will further increase its investment in Shantou. The 500 million yuan of investment made this year to construct a wireless broadband city has resulted in a CDMA 3G mobile communication network that covers the entire city. By 2012, the access speed of broadband users in Shantou will reach 10 M to 100 M and that of government and enterprise users will exceed 1,000 M. The popularization rate of the Internet will reach 85 or higher; wireless broadband will cover over 95 of the population; home broadband information service will come into full-scale popularization to bring the city up to the level of moderately developed countries in terms of informationization.
City leaders also present at the meeting and the signing ceremony were Zhong Zhannan, Lin Yimin, Lin Jianmin (Deputy Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Committee), and Chen Shaohong (Secretary General of the city government).

Source: Shantou Daily July 29, 2009