Chinese city launches citizen feedback system

Local Government
Chinese city launches citizen feedback system

By Captain Wang | 23 October 2009

The Chinese municipal government of Dalian has launched a user evaluation and electronic monitoring system to gauge the popularity and usefulness of its citizen-facing web sites, and to respond faster to complaints from the public.

The system will serve as a one-stop response centre for citizens, who will be able to file a complaints directed at any government department on a single platform. Until now, coordination between government departments on citizen queries has been a weak spot in public service delivery, admits Liu Yan, a spokesperson for Dalian’s Municipal Government E-government Agency.

The new system will enable the authorities to detect citizen dissatisfaction quickly and respond accordingly. “Agencies will no longer be able to pass the buck,” she said.

The Municipal Labour and Social Security Bureau, the Municipal Personnel Bureau, the Chief Complaint Center, City Industrial and Commercial Bureau and the Municipal Education Bureau are among the agencies involved in project. The web site of the Local Taxation Bureau has been rated as the most popular, with 16 per cent of citizens “very satisfied” with its services.

The new system aims to reply to all citizen queries within 15 working days, and improve on satisfaction rates which, overall, are between 97 and 98 per cent.

“The number of letters we receive has always been high,” said Liu. “This reflects the level of interest by Dalian citizens in the performance of their government.”