Bridging the urban-rural information gap: A case study of digital rural construction in Yunnan Province

As one of the key initiatives promoted by the Chinese government, precision poverty alleviation aims to lift information-blocked areas out of poverty and ensure their sustainable economic development. Yunnan Province, characterized by its combination of old, young, border, and poor areas, is the province with the most diverse types of poverty, the widest poverty coverage, and the deepest poverty levels in the country. Yunnan has carried out anti-poverty work in tandem with the national efforts for 42 years in a planned and organized manner, ultimately achieving the goal of zero absolute poverty. In this process, digital rural development has played a very important role. Based on the current experience of digital construction in developed regions, completing regional digitalization requires meeting the needs of information resources, information environment, and information supply and demand. Through keyword search, text analysis, and field visits, we summarized the factors considered by local governments in policy formulation. We also attempted to map out the path for rural governments to build digital villages. With the ultimate goal of bridging the urban-rural gap, the study of digital rural development in Yunnan will provide an effective case.