The State Council has issued a guideline to further promote “Internet Plus governance” and improve the quality and efficiency of government services.

The guideline says that the promotion of “Internet Plus governance” is not only crucial to the reform of streamlining administration, strengthening supervision and optimizing service, but also important for transforming government functions, improving government service efficiency and transparency, and further stimulating market vitality and social creativity.

According to the guideline, by the end of 2017, an integrated online government service platform will be built by related departments under the State Council and provincial governments to comprehensively publicize government service items and significantly improve services. And by the end of 2020, a nationwide “Internet Plus governance” system will be established to make government services “smarter” and bring more convenience and efficiency to enterprises and the public.

To achieve these goals, related departments under the State Council and provincial governments are required to optimize and transform their services. They should prepare catalogs of government service items and publish them on their online portals; optimize online services; promote the availability of online services; adopt innovative service models, and publish service information in a timely and comprehensive manner.

The guideline urges provincial governments and related departments to build convenient and integrated internet-based government service platforms to provide “one-stop” services. These online platforms should be linked to the online portal of the central government and interconnected with each other, which should also be integrated with offline administrative offices and grassroots service outlets to streamline the acceptance and approval process.

The guideline also stresses sharing of governance information by building a unified data sharing and exchanging platform. Emerging technologies such as internet of things, cloud computing and big data will be employed to build a transparent and efficient service-oriented government. To this end, local governments should improve their network infrastructure and enhance network and information protection.

In addition, a performance evaluation system on “Internet Plus governance” will be set up to appraise and publish the progress made by related and local departments. And the State Council will enhance supervision over local governments’ efforts in promoting internet-based governance, according to the guideline.

“Internet Plus governance” should also be included in the cadre education and training system to improve government officials’ service awareness, capabilities and efficiency, said the guideline.