Govt sets up dedicated complaints microblog

Beijing government launched a new microblog account Thursday to help deal with complaints from residents.

Beijing12345, the Sina Weibo account under the Beijing complaint letter and request handling office, is the latest move from the Beijing Service and Information Center to adapt to the increasing popularity of microblogs to provide a convenient service to the people, said an anonymous operator from the center.

"After we receive complaints, we'll report the problems to the relevant department, and it will deal with those problems. As Weibo is gaining popularity, we decided to launch this account apart from our existing telephone hotline," he said.

About 100 people had posted to the account Thursday, and some people got a quick reply, although not one which was specific to their complaint.

"I wrote a message at 2:45 pm and got a reply from it as soon as 3:04," said Zhao Meng, a 30-year-old IT worker in Beijing, who complained that the property management office in his residential compound in Dongcheng district was using their garage as a warehouse.

Beijing12345 replied, saying "Dear citizen, thank you for your attention to Beijing Service and Information Center, we will promptly verify and assign it and reply as soon as possible."

"The reply is fast enough. But I worry if the problem can be solved so quickly," he said.

Zhao said that he complained through the hotline before but never got any solution.

"I hope this Weibo account will work more effectively than the hotline," he said.