Rural e-government for SMEs: case studies in China

Abstract

This paper studies the efforts of developing rural e-government in China to help local farmers, Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to grow and flourish. Three real-life case studies are used to describe the status quo of rural e-government development in China. The merits and limits of each case are assessed in terms of accessibility, usefulness and sustainability. On the basis of the analysis, we suggest the need to improve IT infrastructure in rural areas by having more stakeholder involvements and the need to encourage data and resource sharing among the service providers.