Officials go on live TV to recap year

Officials from the Qingdao city government in Shandong province appeared live on local television on Sunday to present summaries of their performance over the past year.

The presentations by representatives of 54 government departments were aimed at increasing transparency and encouraging public scrutiny of the government's work.

This is the fifth year that Qingdao has required officials to make public presentations on their achievements, but the first time the event was broadcast live on TV, radio and the Internet.

About 10,000 residents were invited to this year's four live sessions to review and grade officials on their performance, as well as submitting their comments and suggestions.

Qingdao Mayor Zhang Xinqi said the move is part of the government's efforts to become more service oriented.

"All departments must honestly report their work to the public and take supervision and criticism seriously," he said.

The 10,000 participants were picked from a database of 7.4 million Qingdao residents older than age 18, using a combination of recommendations, voluntary registration and random selection.

Li Guangquan, a teacher at the Party school of Qingdao, received a phone call last week to attend the live performance review thanks to his participation in government affairs last year.

Li said he submitted three proposals last year through the government website regarding city branding, intellectual property and the biogas industry. He said he received positive responses from the government.

"Qingdao residents have better chances of getting engaged and involved in the city's strategic planning and development compared with other cities. Reviewing and grading official's performance on the scene makes me feel excited," Li said.

Xu Fanghua learned about the broadcast from a local newspaper, so she watched the TV show right after breakfast on Saturday.

"I like it because it lets all the local people know what those officials have accomplished in the past year," she said.

Government officials delivering their presentations said they felt more nervous than in previous years because the live show would not allow them to revise errors.

Jiang Bo, director of Qingdao Bureau of Science and Technology, said she had delivered a report on her work before but she had to practice harder this year to ensure success.

"If I made a mistake in a number, or even a decimal point, there would be no room for me to correct it," she said. "Besides, I have to be careful about the words I choose to make sure the technological terms can be understood by the majority of the listeners."

Before the event, the city government opened a website to gather comments from netizens.

From Nov 19 to Dec 31, 353 suggestions were collected from the Internet in fields such as economics, city planning and construction, education and culture, food safety, transportation and the environment. So far, 268 of these suggestions have been dealt with.

Liu Jianjun, director of the Qingdao Committee of Urban and Rural Construction, said the committee has already made plans for 2014 based on various suggestions from the public.

He said Qingdao will increase efforts in housing construction and renovation, including plans to transform 7,000 houses in shantytowns and 3,000 houses in the countryside.

The government will also renovate all the major old roads in 2014 after residents complained about their poor condition.

The combined construction investment in Qingdao will reach 130 billion yuan ($21.48 billion) in 2014, while last year Qingdao invested 127.3 billion yuan in construction related projects, up 5.2 percent from 2012, according to Liu.

Cui Weidong, director of the Qingdao Office of Foreign Affairs, reported that his department has tightened the management of publicly funded overseas travel.

"I want to thank all the people who have participated in the campaign to offer us suggestions, and we would like to hear more from the public," he said.