The Information Technology Application Office of China's State Council, its cabinet, has issued a 2004 government website performance evaluation, with websites of provincial governments topping the list.

According to the report, Internet portals operated by provincial governments received the highest score of 43.4, followed by 40.7 of central government departments' websites.

Websites owned by prefectural or city governments ranked the third at 27.2 and those of county governments came last at 14.8.

Economically developed municipalities and provinces like Shanghai, Beijing and Zhejiang boasted the best government websites, while central government organizations such as the Ministry of Commerce, the State Food and Drug Administration and the Ministry of Land and Resources were praised for well-managed portals, the report said.

The report showed that by the end of 2004, China had 10,260 websites owned by government institutions. Seventy-one out of 76 ministerial-level government departments and 28 out of 31 provincial governments have their own websites.

The numbers for prefectural or city governments and county governments were 93.1 percent and 69.3 percent, the report said.

Source: Xinhua