Changsha county in Hunan province has been making efforts to establish an open government in recent years, by inviting public participation in decision makings and promoting e-governance, csxnew.com reported.

Public participation

The county has attached more importance to government information disclosure and public participation in decision makings that related to the vital interests of the people since 2008.

All the government information, except as otherwise stipulated by laws and administrative regulations, must be open to the public. In addition, deputies to Changsha county People's Congress, CPPCC and local residents are invited to take part in the local government executive meeting, in a bid to improve the decision-making mechanism.

Public hearing and voting have become an essential part in the county government's decision making process and the public support thus help ensure the smooth implementation of these decisions.

E-governance

E-governance has become an important platform for the county to make online solicitations of public feedback on governance.

The county has opened multiple online channels for further communications with the public, including "e-governance" section in Hunan local news portal rednet.cn, e-paper, the government weibo, the public WeChat account, etc.

In 2012, the government collected advices and suggestions from the netizens, and announced 19 livelihood policies and measures in six aspects, including the catastrophic medical insurance and public security.

The practice of e-governance has achieved success and was promoted in the provincial capital city Changsha, and further to the whole Hunan province. In 2013, the county was listed in the top 100 counties in China in terms of online image and got the top 10 counties honor.

Meanwhile, its experience of e-governance and government weibo was compiled as an example in the nation's white paper on the online image of Chinese cities in the same year.