Shenzhen residents and non-governmental organizations are expected to have a greater say in the city administration's policy-making process.

This is just part of a package of measures that will be implemented in the next few months to promote innovation on administrative governance and improve the self-construction of the government, which will finally lead to a responsible, transparent and service-oriented government under the rule of law.

Correspondingly, the city will stipulate a number of detailed regulations. For example, a regulation legalizing every process of the government approving system, to ensure that administration decisions are made rationally and in a democratic way and that the administrative executives are held accountable, will be put into place by the end of this year or early next year, Nan Ling, director of the newly-set Shenzhen System Reform Office, told a press conference early last week.

Maintaining a small government, the southern city may not recruit new hands to handle the complicated reform on government administration, he said.

"We may invite some outside resources to work for the government. We can pay for the business but won't employ new civil servants for this," said Nan, adding that it will also result in changes in government expenditure.

The country's first special economic zone (SEZ) has lost its charm as a reform pioneer, a role it played well in the 1980s and 1990s with the unparalleled support of the central government, but the central government expects the city to take the lead again in administration reform.

In a recent tour to the SEZ earlier this month, Premier Wen Jiabao said that SEZs such as Shenzhen should focus on innovation as the life and soul of their development in the new circumstances.

Now that China has entered into a new phase of building a moderately prosperous society and the acceleration of socialist modernization, the central government will stick to the line of developing SEZs and the basic policy in developing SEZs, said Wen.

Wen emphasized that SEZs should explore new modes and measures to modernize better and prioritize innovation.

At the same time, social science scholars said Shenzhen could pick up the strength to lead the country in public governance reform.

Le Zheng, president of the Shenzhen Academy of Social Sciences, said the local government would widely consult its residents before a policy is made in a bid to democratize its decision-making processes.

Non-government organizations have boomed since the government set up a special department last year to foster and serve the trade associations. The government will listen more carefully to the voices of residents, non-government organizations and corporations, Le said.

(China Daily September 22, 2005)