Spokesperson training programs are still far from meeting the demand of local governments in China, though 11 provincial spokesperson training programs have been arranged this year, according to Wang Xingming, director in charge of the spokesperson training program of the State Council Information Office (SCIO).

Wang said that he still had more than 10 applications in hand waiting for arrangements, and his office also received many requests for help from several central departments, which had planned to train spokespersons in their fields at various levels.

The SCIO has held three national spokesperson training programs since last September, which trained nearly 200 spokesmen and information officers from central departments and provincial governments.

The training programs, using case studies and practical exercises, invited senior government spokespersons and specialists from universities and the media to give lectures on news releases, public relations and language skills.

The three training programs received good responses from attendees and aroused wide attention of the media and the public across the country, so many local governments proposed their own spokesperson training programs, said Wang.

China's spokesperson training programs have also attracted the interest of foreign institutions, like CNN and Hill Knowlton Public Relations Co. Ltd., and the latter was invited to give a lecture at the third national spokesperson training program held in Beijing on May 17-21.

Even the Embassy of the Republic of Korea expressed its interest and asked for the training content, said Wang.

China's opening-up policy has resulted in the public's increasing aspiration for information, which has become the driving force to boost the reform of China's news release system.

Governments at various levels are facing the challenge to satisfy the demand of the public and the spokesperson system has so been adopted as governments' response to guide the media, said Cao Jingxing, commentator of Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV.

During the SARS spread in China early last year, China established an epidemic and other health matters reporting system, which greatly advanced the news release system featured by the spokesperson system.

Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao and other Chinese leaders have called for more transparency of governments by making public more information to the people and the Chinese government has decided to launch a three-tier government news-release system, said Zhao Qizheng, headof the SCIO. (More)

The three-tier system will feature spokespersons for the State Council, all the ministries and provincial-level governments. The SCIO will strengthen guidance on the effort nationwide and train more spokespersons from ministries and provincial governments this year to help increase the number, quality and authority of news conferences at the three levels, according to Zhao.

All the central departments have appointed their spokesmen and more spokespersons have emerged in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Nanjing. They have become stars in their regions.

For a long time, Chinese officials were reluctant to have contact with the media and lacked the experiences and skills to deal with the media, which have become a major challenge for them, so they are in great demand for being trained to improve their professional skills, said Wu Jianmin, former spokesman of the Foreign Ministry and Chinese Ambassador to France.

Maybe Xu Ning, the first spokeswoman for the Nanjing City government, can tell why the training programs are so welcomed by attendees. She attended the second national training program last November.

"What the spokeswoman should do was totally fresh for me, even for the Nanjing City government, so I needed imminent guides in theory and skills at that time," said Xu. She added that the governments would seek every channel to improve their performances in dealing with the media, even without the outbreak of SARS.

Besides the professional skills, the experiences and lessons of other regions are also the focus of the attendees.

"Shanghai's regulations on spokespersons are useful for our upcoming similar regulations," said Li Wei, an official of the Chengdu City government, who just finished his study at the third national spokesperson training program on May 21.

In the past several months, many Chinese regions like Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan and Chongqing publicized their regulations on information publicity to stipulate the duties of government departments and spokespersons.

"The training program had become a driving force to promote the spokesperson system while it provided professional skills to officials," said Wang Xingmin.
 
(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2004)