Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Minutes of Evidence


Supplementary memorandum by the World Service on the World Service's Activities in China

  The World Service is currently drawing up its 3-Year Plan 2001-04, outlining how the resources made available in the government's Spending Review will be utilised from April 2001. This plan will be approve-d by the BBC Board of Governors and agreed with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office before the end of the year; it will specify any detailed changes in the World Service's activities in China.

  However, it is clear that two of the key priorities in our 3-Year Strategy on which the Treasury based the World Service funding settlement are particularly relevant to China, namely the Internet and English Language Teaching.

  We shall therefore further develop our online offer in Chinese by increasing the range of information we provide, as well as updating it more frequently. At the same time we will add an e-mail news service, an interactive English learning section and more multimedia content.

  Given the crucial importance of English in the Chinese market we also intend to launch a pilot teaching project together with the British Consul, both on radio and on the Internet.

  Importantly, the Spending Review 2000 provides the necessary capital funding to refurbish the short wave transmitter in Singapore. This will substantially improve audibility in China.


 
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