Beijing Party chief pushes public service

Beijing is determined to improve public services, including dealing with parking difficulties in hutong, Cai Qi, the city's Party chief, said on Saturday during his first public activity since being appointed to the post.

Cai, together with Chen Jining, who was minister of environmental protection until his appointment as acting mayor of Beijing on May 27, went into a convenience store in Dongcheng district to ask customers for comments on prices and services.

He Ren, a local resident, told Cai that the vegetables for sale in the store were fresh and the prices were reasonable, adding that customers can find the source of vegetables by scanning a code on the package.

Many convenience stores in Beijing are addressing customers' needs by offering not only daily necessities, but services such as residential cleaning, laundry and short-distance delivery.

According to a report from the China Chain Store and Franchise Association, Beijing had 1,400 convenience stores as of the end of last year, up 25 percent from 2015. The growth rate of convenience stores in Beijing ranked fourth in China, and 53.3 percent of those are open 24 hours, it said.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform and the Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce announced last month that the city will give 200 million yuan ($29.3 million) in subsidies annually for the next three years to be invested in community services - such as vegetable markets, convenience stores and street vendors who serve breakfast.

According to the Commerce Commission, Beijing built or upgraded 2,824 convenience stores, vegetable markets and breakfast stalls, along with other stores related to housekeeping in 2015. This year, the government plans to build and upgrade another 1,000 stores in the convenience service sector.

"As a government, we should make efforts to improve people's daily lives and solve problems on their doorstep," Cai said.

He said that narrow residential streets, or hutong, in Dongcheng and Xicheng districts are core areas of the capital, and it's important to improve the environment and management of them.

Beijing plans to gradually solve long-standing parking problems in hutong through measures such as shared parking spaces, he added.

Cai said Beijing has been working on relieving its noncore functions by moving some wholesale markets out of the city to make room for high-tech industries, which doesn't mean that public services will be reduced.

"On the contrary, convenience will be improved in neighborhoods to improve people's satisfaction with their standards of living," he said.