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Netizens help shape work report

Wang Xu and Zhang Yue
Updated: Mar 4,2016 7:22 AM     China Daily

More than 60,000 responses from netizens, both at home and abroad, helped the government shape this year’s work report to be delivered on March 5 by Premier Li Keqiang, a State Council official told reporters on March 3.

The report, listing accomplishments made in the past year and setting goals for 2016, including the closely watched GDP growth target, will guide policies in every sector.

In an online campaign from Jan 31 to March 1, “Ideas I want to share with Premier Li Keqiang”, more than 61,900 people responded across a range of social media platforms, including chinadaily.com.cn. Nearly 1,000 of the respondents were overseas.

Social security, healthcare reform, education, streamlined administration and the decentralization of government departments received the most responses, said the government official in charge of the campaign, who requested anonymity.

It is not yet known how many of the suggestions will be used in the report, said the official. In 2015, 46 suggestions from online respondents were written into the final report.

There were more young respondents this year than last, the official added.

Lin Hao, head of 163.com’s government information center, one of the platforms used, said netizens from all parts of China and overseas Chinese expressed their ideas. All seemed interested in China’s development, he said, and a huge variety of topics were covered.

Han Ronghua, deputy editor-in-chief of chinadaily.com.cn, said his team spent much time sifting through the responses to make sure there were no repetitions.

As an effort to facilitate release of government information and interactions between the government and the public, the State Council launched its Chinese-language mobile phone application in February, which has played an important role in soliciting public opinion.

Dong Guanpeng, dean of the Academy of Media and Public Affairs at Communication University of China, said such interaction is good for transparent governance.

“This interaction between the government and its people will help the government to provide information and make decisions through dialogue,” Dong said.

He also said the results of such dialogue will provide fresh information for the State Council and the Premier’s meeting with the media.

A respondent called “Zhuliontheroad” said she was curious about what people were concerned about.