Office of the President Republic of China(Taiwan)

Taipei, July 26 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Thursday that the "digital divide" must not be allowed to exist between Taiwan's cities and towns and that he hopes everyone will be able to enjoy reasonably priced and universal broadband services in the future.

Chen made his remarks in a video-conferencing session with executives of Chunghwa Telecom in which he congratulated the state-owned enterprise for reaching a milestone with its 500,000th asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) user.

He also urged other private telecommunications companies to provide even more competitive technology and services and help the government reach its goal of country-wide broadband services.

Chen's comments echoed an ongoing initiative proposed by Taiwan in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to assist other states in the 21-member forum in bridging the digital divide, which has been described as the imbalance between the rich and the poor in their access to computer education and information technologies.