China aims to build an information network by 2006 that pools information about its citizens from various sectors, ranging from police to family planning, taxation and educational departments, according to the Working Conference on Sharing Basic Information on the Population now being held in Shanghai.

"The project is about sharing information about the population gleaned by the public security, labor and social insurance, taxation and other departments," said a government official attending the conference.

"There's a need for different sectors to share information. For instance, banks need information from other sources to verify the credit standing of certain people, and individuals need access to police records to ascertain the authenticity of ID cards," said the official.

The project is jointly sponsored by the State Council Informatization Office, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) and China's standardization authority.

The official said the project would first be carried out on a trial basis in Shanghai, Hunan Province and Yangzhou City in Jiangsu Province from March 1 this year. The network will first include population information from the police and then add information from family planning, statistics, civil affairs, social security, taxation and education departments.

It should contain such basic information about a citizen as identification card number, name, sex, nationality, birthplace and records held by concerned departments, he said.

He added that the project would help the government to improve its population work efficiency, do a better job of population supervision and provide better services for the public in this respect.

(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2004)