CGTN:

Guangdong regards digital government as an important driver for reform. It has proposed a series of innovative measures, including launching a government service app Yueshengshi in Guangdong. Could you tell us more about Guangdong's progress in its building of a digital government? Thanks.  

Ma Xingrui:

Thank you for the question. Let me invite Guangdong Vice-Governor Zhang Hu to answer the question.

Zhang Hu:

Thank you for your concern on Guangdong's digital reform and construction. President Xi Jinping pays great attention to applying information technology in state governance. He has emphasized many times the role of information technology in the state governance, and that promoting the modernization of the state governance system and governance capability by the use of information technology, so as to better serve the country's economic and social development and improve people's livelihoods. 

Guangdong's building of a "digital government" is an important deployment of General Secretary Xi's important instructions and spirit in this regard. It is significant for the province to foster an "internet plus government services", modernize the government's governance system and governance capability as well as playing up and creating new strengths in the business environment. After more than two years' work, the reform and construction of our "digital government" has achieved remarkable results. In April, the General Office of the State Council's e-governance office entrusted third party agencies to assess the online government service capabilities of provincial-level governments. Guangdong was ranked first in the assessment. I would like to introduce it through the following three aspects:

First, why this reform? Guangdong has always placed great significance to the informatization of governance and has launched government service applications with Guangdong characteristics. But in the light of the new situation and new requirements, we still have four prominent issues to resolve. Firstly, the construction and management mechanism lags behind. There is no department directly affiliated to the provincial government to lead and plan the deeper integration of informatization within the provincial-level government. There is also insufficient coordination and collaboration among the relevant governments at the city- and county-level. There is no vertical planning and collaboration so synergy is lacking between the superior and subordinate departments, and among different departments in one place that are related to the undertaking. Second, sporadic and repetitive construction is common. Before the reform, every department directly affiliated to the provincial government had its own information center, and there were as many as 1,068 such information systems, which were separated from each other. This led to the existence of many isolated information islands. Third, the services for enterprises and people are not in place. Because the data resources of different units are separate, and there was no unified management and effective sharing, the people and business owners often complained that they had to go to different departments and repeatedly provide certification materials to deal even with a simple matter related to the government. Fourth, the staff are not professional enough. The professional structure of talents on the informatization in government departments is comparatively basic. Statistics show the proportion of talents in the middle- and high-level professional ranks is not high, which does not match with Guangdong's status as a major province of the information industry.  

Secondly, how do we advance this reform? In response to the aforementioned prominent issues, the CPC Guangdong provincial committee and the Guangdong provincial government initiated the "digital government" reform. At the end of 2017, it was labeled as the first of the 18 key tasks for Guangdong's deepening of reforms. Guangdong Party chief Li Xi presided over the work conference to examine and settle on the final reform plan, and made detailed deployments. Guangdong Governor Ma Xingrui held the post as the leader of the team to deepen reform, and has conducted inspections many times to create the master plan and the construction plan to advance the reform. Our efforts are mainly in these four aspects:  

First, we have deepened institutional reforms. Governance service data administrative bureaus were established at the governments of the province, city and county level, which form a coordinated informatization administrative body connecting the superior and subordinate government bodies. The functions such as local office of government set-up committee's responsibilities in promoting the administrative approval system reform, the development and reform commission's duties in initiating and approving projects related to informatization, and the supervision of public resource trading platforms are now assigned to the government data service bureaus, so that a vertical and intensive management system that features the integration of technology and operations is formed. 

Second, we have established a model featuring the "collaboration of government and enterprises, and division of administration and operations". We have integrated the resources of Tencent, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom and founded the Digital Guangdong, which is in charge of the building, operation and maintenance of the "digital government". We have brought together a group of talents in big data, networks, operations and development and resolved the shortage of talent and the rigidity of the government system in starting a business. 

Third, we have strengthened the platform's role as a powerful support and efficient service provider. Building a unified government cloud and big data platform, promoting inter-department and cross-level data sharing, and reinforcing the foundation for a digital government. Based on this foundation, we have advanced the platform's applications in three aspects — Yueshengshi app, Guangdong governance service website (gdzwfw.gov.cn), and coordinated office platform, in a bid to realize "the 'clouding' of data and the delivering of services".

Fourth, we place greater emphasis on the role of think tanks. A "digital government" reform and construction expert board was set up. We invited Wang Qinmin, who is the former vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and director of the State Council's e-governance expert committee, to head the board, which consists of more than 100 experts and provides strong technological support in the construction of "digital government" for Guangdong.

Third, how about the effect of the reform? The Yueshengshi app has made it possible for users to deal with 630 government-linked issues relating to their everyday lives through their smartphone. For 86% of these issues, people now do not need to go to government departments in person, saving them considerable time and costs. For example, the photos people needed to take at the border exit-entry is now free of charge, which saves people's time, and nearly 100 million yuan ($14.49 million) a year. In the first year of the app's launch, more than 12 million people have logged on it. In terms of services for enterprises, the Guangdong governance service website has covered all service items related to governments at the village, township, county, city and provincial levels. This has greatly enhanced the working efficiency and reduced the amounts of materials enterprises have to submit by nearly 56%, according to our statistics, and reduced the amount of the time for registering a new business to five days at most. In addition, in terms of government coordination, the integrated collaborative office platform has been promoted for use in 21 cities in the province, as well as 42 departments directly affiliated to the provincial government, among which more than 90% has initiated cloud-based work platforms. Our survey indicates the time for handling department documents has dropped by about 40%, and the efficiency of administrative approval and services have markedly improved.

Currently, Guangdong has entered a key phase in its "digital government" reform and construction. Although we have made some progress, there are still many more tasks to be done. We will act strictly according to the CPC Central Committee and the State Council's deployment and requirements, learn the good experience and working methods from other provinces, and unswervingly deepen reform and seek innovation — like hitting the nail on the head — to take Guangdong's "digital government" reform and construction to another level. That's all I have to say about the topic. Thanks.

Ma Xingrui:

As for the "digital government", I would like to say more. First, it is important for us to implement the deployment of the "Digital China", as it represents the direction for guiding and pushing forward the development of the digital economy. Second, we need to build a public cloud platform and public data platform, breaking the former state in government work in which there was a lack of coordination among different departments. Third, we founded Digital Guangdong, a network construction company employing 1,200 people, which is a joint venture involving Tencent, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom and operating according to market laws. Meanwhile, we founded a governance service data administrative bureau, which is indeed a tough institutional breakthrough. That's all.