China's authorities reaching public through apps

BEIJING -- A quarter of China's government ministries and 31 percent of provincial-level governments have developed software applications that run on smartphones or other mobile devices, according to figures released by a ministry research institute on Thursday.

As of November 15, 13 out of 52 government ministries and departments had developed such mobile applications to provide information for the public, said the China Software Testing Center (CSTC), operated under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Local governments on the municipal and township-level are less "mobile," with only 11 percent and 3.8 percent respectively having such applications, the CSTC report showed.

But the center noted most applications are limited to providing news and basic information. About half of the ministries and two-thirds of the local governments have failed to provide inquiry service or have no interactive communication with the public via their mobile applications.

Some applications are also susceptible to software code tampering, user information leakage and other security problems, the center added.

China has made various moves to reform its government administrative system this year, including stepping up information transparency and streamlining government approval procedures.

The increasing use of mobile applications in government services is expected to better cater to China's 1.22 billion mobile phone users.