The State Council released a circular on the guidelines for government website construction in order to gradually improve online public services and enhance government transparency.

According to the circular, governments at all levels are urged to make public their roles and responsibilities on their official websites.

The government websites should be dedicated to promoting user experience by continually upgrading their content and adhering to innovation.

Regulations on the official websites’ name, IP address and logo were listed. For example, their domain name should always end in “gov.cn”, and their main functions should include information release, feedback and interaction with users.

Information about major events including meetings, activities and decisions should be released in a timely manner. Officials from related departments should be invited to answer people’s concerns on hot issues in an authoritative way, and the information should be updated on both traditional and new media platforms.

A unified online service system should be set up to provide key data analysis to enterprises and citizens to assist their business procedures, while the whole process should be recorded as part of administrative reform.

Staffers should be assigned to take responsibility for the normal operations of the websites. A 24-hour on-duty system should be established to handle emergencies.

The guidelines also suggested that government websites should report annually on its work performance, such as total volume of visits, post numbers and platform building.