Today is a red-letter day for us members of the China Internet Information Centre and the website www.china.org.cn, as we gather here to celebrate the official inauguration of our centre, and see our nameplate unveiled. On January 1, 1997, the China Internet Information Center launched the state website, www.china.org.cn. In the three years since then, the website has developed a sizeable scale, emerged as a unique and indispensable cyber-journal, and acquired an impressive following by providing our websurfing readers with a deluge of updated news. On September 28, www.china.org.cn became perhaps the world’s only website that publishes news and views in eight languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Arabic, and Esperanto. Our website has become a major access for netizens around the world to information on all aspects of China, and played a major role in promoting understanding and exchanges between the country and the rest of the world. This, we are proud to say, has exactly met our purpose of creating the website.

However, we are perfectly aware that our website, in so far as scale and growth rate are concerned, still has a long way to go to live up to the expectations of our government and web visitors alike. The inauguration ceremony today will give us a great impetus to redouble our efforts to build up our website and offer all those who care about China richer and more varied information.

It is my sincerely hope that www.china.org.cn will become a true friend of yours.

(CIIC 11/24/2000)