Beijing reveals wish list for 2013

Beijing government published the annual list of targets it intends to work on in 2013 for public benefit.

Scholars said Tuesday that more transparency is needed on how these goals are to be tackled, and whether they have been executed sufficiently in the past.

The targets are issued and supervised by the administration office of the Beijing government and will be implemented by local government bureaus.

According to a press release from the Beijing Municipal Government Monday, the list of its "annual goals" has been launched every year since 1986 and so far, 1,139 of these have been tackled altogether. The targets are picked so as to provide solutions to residents' concerns, the Beijing Morning Post reported Monday.

The targets were chosen from feedback from 1,500 Beijing residents, the Beijing Times reported Tuesday.

The amount of goals to be solved annually is different. In 2012, there were 35 objectives, while this year the number reduced to 32. They are separated into eight categories in which the government has pledged to make improvements. This includes projects in public transport, the environment, living conditions, social security, pensions, community service, public health and security, and culture.

One of the main projects will be to relocate people from areas of the city that were hit by natural disasters or who live in areas of derelict housing. The government has promised to move 5,000 people by the end of 2013.

However, in 2013, the government has identified improvements in public transport to be of high priority. There are to be new bus lanes, subway lines, road circulatory projects, and an increase in the number of parking spaces.

Meng Bin, a professor of urban planning at Beijing Union University, said the government's goal to improve public transport might not be lived up to as the measures they have pledged to take are not very helpful.

"Given Beijing's congestion problem is not just related to the amount of vehicles but also the way the city has been designed, there really needs to be cooperation between different local government bodies such as those responsible for urban planning and development and reform instead of just traffic authorities," he said.

Meng noted that the dense social and economic activities in central areas are a major cause of congestion.

"Although more subway lines could help alleviate the bad traffic condition, government will find that traffic problems are not only caused by too many vehicles on the roads," he said.

Beijing environment authorities have been tasked with providing clean energy systems in houses in Dongcheng and Xicheng districts, tidying the environment around some schools, main roads and communities, and upgrading 30 roads with street lights. More trees are to be planted in low-lying areas of the city. Tackling PM2.5, which was a goal for 2012, is no longer on the list for this year.

Among the 35 goals that were given in early February 2012, establishing a PM2.5 pollution monitoring network and improving atmospheric quality was listed as the first priority.

Although by early October 2012, the network to monitor PM2.5 pollution was already completed, experts said the effect of the air quality control has not been conspicuous.

Zhou Rong, climate and energy director of Greenpeace, said that the local government did live up to the promise of building a PM2.5 monitoring network, but more needs to be done.

"For instance, the further improvement in atmospheric air quality they promised was not there," she said, adding that PM2.5 monitoring could still be improved.

"We still don't know how much pollution comes from outside Beijing on severely polluted days," she said.

Zhu Lijia, director of Public Administration Studies at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said although the purpose of these targets is for public benefit, the process needs to be more transparent to win public trust.

"After all, the important thing is not how many promises the government makes, but whether these promises have been fully implemented," he said.

"Instead of reporting the results of the implementation of the goals by the local government itself, they should let a third party organization do the inspecting and reporting," he said.

The administration office of Beijing Municipal Government could not comment Tuesday.