• Home
• GOVERNMENT CXO
• E-GOVERNMENT
• CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT
• TAX AND REVENUE MANAGEMENT
• GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT
• GREEN GOVERNMENT
• GOVERNMENT DATA MANAGEMENT
• GOVERNMENT SECURITY
• GOVERNMENT CLOUD
• GOVERNMENT ANALYTICS
• GOVERNMENT GIS
• CONNECTED GOVERNMENT
• DIGITAL INCLUSION
• EDUCATION IT
• HEALTHCARE IT

Citizen Engagement, E-Government

Chinese city launches dedicated microblogging site

By Jianggan Li | 28 March 2011

The government of Shenyang, a regional centre in China’s Northeast with a population of eight million residents, has started its own microblogging site to make announcements and handle citizen complaints.

The service, called “Voice of the Public Microblog”(民声微博), has an interface very similar to Sina Weibo, the most popular microblogging site in China with more than 100 million subscribers.

Qian Zhanxian, Director of Research at Shenyang Economic Information Centre told FutureGov Greater China that previously lots of complaints were voiced by citizens through different commercial microblog services and monitoring those to ensure speedy response would be very time and resource consuming for the government.

Residents of Shenyang and visitors can now register an account and direct their complaints/enquiries directly to departments on the site, which is also available for others to view.

“What we are doing here is to ensure that citizens have a dedicated channel to communicate with the government with the microblogging interface they are comfortable with,” Qian said.

All government agencies, departments and special offices are required to have an account on the site and respond relevant posts by citizens in a timely manner.

“Every department has human resources to handle complaints, and now they can work more efficiently with the platform,” Qian added.

Qian also revealed that all community offices are now equipped with web conferencing facilities and citizens who wish to talk directly with departments or seek legal assistance could do so in their neighbourhood instead of travelling across the city to dedicated offices.

A mobile version of the microblogging is also available, and a dedicated promotional video has been broadcast online to make sure more citizens are aware of the channel.

---