'Bridging the Digital Divide' ministerial forum held in Wuzhen (4)

Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, hosts the keynote speech I: Digital Divide and Economic Development at a ministerial forum themed "Bridging the Digital Divide" in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang province on Nov 8, which serves as a sub-forum of the fifth World Internet Conference. [Photo by Xu Jingxing /chinadaily.com.cn]

During the keynote speech session, Chinese and foreign guests and experts delivered keynote speeches on the topics including "Digital Divide and Economic Development", "Digital Divide and Information Sharing", "the Role of International Communication in Bridging the Digital Divide", and shared their unique opinions and innovative ideas to jointly offer suggestions for bridging the digital divide.

In his speech, Zhang Fuhai, member of the Standing Committee and head of the publicity department of Liaoning provincial CPC committee and director of the Liaoning Provincial Office of Cyberspace Affairs Commission, introduced the achievements of Liaoning in promoting the development of the digital economy. He believes that standing at the forefront of internet development, we should accelerate the construction of a new generation of high-speed, mobile, secure and ubiquitous information infrastructure, promote the application of next-generation information technology, foster new industrial development, and release technology dividends, institutional dividends and innovation dividends. He also said we should enhance government governance and promote economic transformation and development.

Wu Zhaohui, president of Zhejiang University and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in his speech informatization is making education more convenient and inclusive and constructing a new space for running schools through informatization is the key to expanding the coverage of high-quality educational resources and bridging the gap of higher education.

Liu Yuzhu, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, proposed that to bridge the divide, the internet's way of thinking should be adopted, which requires the "interconnection" of ideas, resources, information, mechanisms and industries. It is necessary to give new life to cultural relics and let cultural heritage promote idea exchanges, dialogue and communication among civilizations.

"I have discussed a lot during the last days with Chinese entrepreneurs, and I was really thrilled to hear how they have ideas. They have also the force to take risks and to put these ideas into practice," said Viviane Reding, member of the Luxembourgish Parliament, former vice-president of European Commission.

"I think we have a lot to learn from your entrepreneurs. And I would really wish that in the future we can share our experience, both the positive and negative ones, we can learn from both of those. We can solve the problems and they can be solved very quickly, if we join force," she said.

Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Media and Publicity, said they are taking concrete steps to reduce digital divide. Chinese Companies like Huawei have played an important role in helping our push at digital inclusion.

"The more we use digital technologies, the more we should make sure that every citizen has the knowledge and skills to seize the opportunities provided by the technologies," said Gabriel Lim, permanent secretary of Ministry of Communications and Information of the Republic of Singapore.

The forum was hosted by China Daily and co-organized by the China Internet Development Foundation, China Telecommunications Corporation and Zhejiang University.

More than 300 people from Chinese and foreign government departments, Chinese and foreign internet enterprises, experts and scholars, representatives of authoritative research institutions, and media reporters attended the forum.