At a State Council executive meeting on Dec 7, Premier Li Keqiang urged government departments to take the lead in breaking down information barriers.

The meeting passed a national plan on promoting informationization during the 13th Five-year Plan period, aimed at building a unified, interconnected, secure and reliable national data information resource system, and opening public data resources to the whole society.

Premier Li has been promoting the “Internet Plus” initiative, which has been included in government work reports. And the government reform of delegating power, streamlining administration and optimizing services has focused on “internet plus government services”.

China has a solid foundation for information development, with government departments at all levels having set up numerous information systems. However, there is a lack of links and communication among these systems, creating information “islands”.

This year, the Premier has repeatedly stressed the need to break down information barriers among government departments. He noted that currently, more than 80 percent of information and data resources are at the hands of governments at different levels, which is not only a huge waste, but also has caused great inconvenience for enterprises and the public.

Because different government departments do not share basic information about citizens, such as household, employment and marital status, they have to cross check with each other when citizens apply for some services, resulting in waste of time and disappointing low efficiency.

As the government is making efforts to streamline administration, one of the priorities, as the Premier said, should be allowing the public to enjoy convenient and efficient services brought by “internet plus government services” and shared information resources.