In the world of today, the level of informatization has become a benchmark in measuring the aggregate strength of the economic and social development and the level civilization of a city. Informatization is becoming a major driving force in global trade, investment, capital flows, the transfer of technology, and the developments in social, economic, cultural and other fields, and it will help bring about common prosperity and progress for the mankind. However, we should not fail, in the process of economic globalization and ICT development, to see the increasing disparity in wealth and the enlarging of “the digital divide” between the developed and developing countries, and the least developed countries facing the risk of “being marginalized” in the information area.

Along with the progress of the global urbanization, the number of urban dwellers will rise from 3 billion in 2003 (48 per cent of the total population) to 5 billion (60 per cent of the total population) in 2030.  City informatization will not only involve the information industry itself, but also, through information technology and its related activities, will reform and develop the social, economic, cultural and other fields. It will greatly enhance, in this manner, the order and efficiency of generating, exchanging, releasing and transmitting of information in cities, increase the aggregate competitiveness of the economic and social activities of cities and, eventually, achieve the effects of "convergence" as well as "radiation."

The Forum on City Informatization in the Asia-Pacific Region (CIAPR) initiated by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA), in response to the call for bridging the digital divide of the ECOSOC Ministerial Declaration and the United Nations Millennium Summit. CIAPR is also co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Industrial Organization, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force, and the Chinese Government, including: the State Council Informatization Office, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Information Industry, the Ministry of Commerce and the ChineseAcademy of Sciences.

The mission of the CIAPR is, to provide a platform for government leaders, decision-makers and policy developers, business leaders and entrepreneurs, and technical professionals and experts worldwide to exchange visions, policies and strategies, technologies and products, practices and experiences, in order to stimulate economic and social development through city informatization in the Asia-Pacific region and worldwide, and to promote inter-country, regional and international cooperation, particularly south-south cooperation, and, accordingly, to bridge the digital divide of the world.