The government must truly place service above anything else in performing its duties, according to Wang Hongju, mayor of Chongqing, the leading industrial and commercial city in southwest China.
Wang, who is a deputy to the National People?s Congress, China?s legislature, said, ?To build a service-oriented government and an honest and efficient government, we must weaken the government?s administrative power and intensify its service functions.?
The mayor emphasized the importance of studying the questions such as what the government should administer, to what extent it should exercise administration and how it should exercise administration.
?We ought to explore these questions actively and give explicit answers,? he said.
It is now necessary to reduce the number of administrative permits and simplify examination and approval procedures. Meanwhile, it is imperative to establish a new administrative permit and examination and approval mechanism.
In Wang?s view, to transform government functions and change its style of work, it is also necessary to break industrial monopoly and improve services.
For example, several large companies have been set up in the telecommunications sector to bring in competition. As a result, telecom service standards and quality have improved substantially. This is in sharp contrast to the power industry, in which resources are monopolized by power companies.
He said that in the next phase, it is necessary to break the monopoly in the power, cooking gas and tap water sectors in order to create the environment in which operators will be able to compete fairly and consumers to choose services on their own.
(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2003)
