An American company in China? It may seem unusual, but a U.S.-traded company is building an e-government system in Jinjiang and Nanan of the Fujian province in the People's Republic of China.
China Expert Technology Inc. (OTC BB:CXTI) has announced that China Expert Network Company Limited, known as China Expert, a wholly owned subsidiary of Leopard, has signed contracts totaling $36.6 million to complete the e-government network infrastructure projects.
China Expert will be responsible for the entire e-government project for each city, including network infrastructure, hardware and security design, applications and implementation. One of the contracts was signed in 2003 and is expected to be completed before the end of 2004. The second contract is expected to be completed before the end of 2005.
"Citizens in the first contracted city are now able to use the established e-government facilities to settle their personal bills, such as tax and electricity bills, directly with the specific government departments and public utility companies through the Internet," said Kung Sze Chau, chief executive officer of Leopard.
The plans for the project were created in 2001. That year the office of the State Council laid out a five-year plan regarding the building up of e-government throughout the country. It set out the background, direction and goals of the project.
These goals include:
* Setting up fundamental and strategic e-government data bases.
* Upgrading the level of resource sharing.
* Enhancing the power of management, including the decision-making capability and contingency-planning capability of the Central Government and of other local governmental departments.
* Creating relevant laws and regulations, basic e-government system infrastructure, and a security system and training program in relation to an e-government.
* Paving the way for the next five-year plan.
Leopard Capital Inc. is a leading information technology network and infrastructure company. China Expert is currently the only single contractor to include a complete e-government infrastructure project within one contract from a single city government in China. - NU