Suggestions from netizens welcome

Comments and suggestions from netizens, be they praise or criticism, help enlighten authorities and improve their work, said Wang Yang, Party chief of Guangdong province, who joined newly appointed members in an online chat with the public on Monday.

"The important feature of this kind of communication is the exploration of a system," said Wang.

"We, as the leadership of the provincial Party committee, are doing it more as an example to encourage the Party committees, governments and officials at various levels to pay more attention to the voices from the Web," he said.

On this platform, people can be bolder and more straightforward when conveying issues to leaders, Wang said.

"We want to express the emphasis we place on the Internet community. Guangdong is home to more than 100 million people, including more than 63 million netizens."

Wang has held such chats for the past four years and was joined by some members of the standing committee of the provincial Party committee last year.

The comments by the netizens during the chat focused on the prominent issues that have arisen during the transformation of society, such as the rural-urban development gap and the integration of migrant workers into cities as well as education, environment, land requisition and corruption, Wang said.

A netizen with the Web name Shenzhenchujing said that migrant workers need officials to make housing affordable and simplify the process of seeing a doctor.

Guiqulaixi, another netizen, complained about the lack of efficiency shown by officials at lower ranks.

Provincial leaders are fully aware of these issues, and the provincial authorities are working to solve the problems, he said.

One netizen said that the comments made on the forum are not real, and it would be better to view comments in micro blogs.

"Actually, I read comments on micro blogs every day and come across comments criticizing me very often," Wang said.

"We who are in office are servants. It kind of makes sense for the master to criticize the servants," he said, adding "the voices of criticism make us more sober-minded".

Online interactions with netizens in the past few years have effectively pushed forward the online participation in and discussion of politics in Guangdong. The Party committees and governments are increasingly using the Web to solicit people's opinions and to realize better decision-making, Wang said.

While the traditional channels for petitioning are rather narrow, inconvenient and inefficient in solving the problems, the online form is efficient, anonymous, representative and costs little, said Chen Tianxiang, a professor at the management school of politics and public affairs under Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University.

The move of the provincial leadership is meant to set an example for the governments at various levels to follow and the key to the whole matter lies in effectively responding and solving the issues, he said.

Meanwhile, the authorities are improving the existing online petition channel, said Lin Musheng, secretary-general of the provincial Party committee.

Responding to the question on the reform to rules governing the use of public vehicles, Huang Xianyao, Party secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, said related measures are being scrutinized and will be taken step by step upon approval.

Zhu Xiaodan, governor of Guangdong, pledged to help the small and micro-sized enterprises through their operational difficulties, which, he said, is comparable to those faced in the global financial crisis in 2008.

The provincial authorities have forecast that the economic downturn would worsen in the first half of this year, Zhu said.

Growth slowed in the first quarter of the year in the main economic indices, including the gross domestic product, industrial added value and output, foreign trade, retail, fixed-asset investment and tax revenue.

The slowdown is attributable to contracted external demand, weakened investment and consumption due to cyclical reasons and measures taken to restructure the economy.

"When we take an active approach in restructuring the economy, we pay a price in the speed (of economic development)."

"During the process, we care the most about the difficulties of enterprises, especially the small and micro-sized enterprises, in their operations."

Due to fewer orders, rising costs and difficulty raising funds, the challenges faced by enterprises are comparable to those in the global financial crisis in 2008, which saw a marked decrease in profit margins.

Provincial authorities have issued 56 measures to support small and micro-sized enterprises. Some of the measures help these enterprises with financing, and a pilot policy was also released for a system of comprehensive services for smaller enterprises.

At the root of the slowdown are the structural problems in the economy. The government will continue to promote economic transformation, including that of the processing trade industry, which accounts for the greatest share of the provincial economy, Zhu said.