China is planning to build a giant database with information
about its 1.3 billion population, according to China Youth
Daily.
The database will include citizens' names, gender,
nationalities, birth dates, residence addresses and identity card
numbers, the newspaper said.
Many IT companies, including the Lenovo Group and the Sinosoft
Group, have placed bids for the database building program, which
will be an unprecedented challenge due to the tremendous quantities
of information and complexity of the operation.
Experts here consider that the population database will lay
important ground for the country's social and economic
development.
It will also play a key role to the establishment of information
networks concerning employment, tax levy and management, individual
credibility, social security, family planning and criminal tracing,
the experts say.
In addition, it can also favor the nationwide distribution of
the second generation of ID cards currently under way in China,
they said.
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(CRI.com July 24, 2004)