A young man consults an advisor at the Innohall in Beijing’s Zhongguancun Science Park on March 17. The Innohall provides entrepreneurs with various public services regarding such issues as law, tax and investment.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping recently suggested that reforms should endow the public with a greater sense of gain. In response, scholars gathered at Fudan University on April 15 to discuss public service reforms in the era of Internet Plus to improve people’s sense of gain.

Identities of providers vary as the demand for public services continues to diversify in the era of Internet Plus. Zhu Chunkui, a professor from the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, suggested that government agencies are no longer the sole providers of public services. Enterprises have joined government departments as providers and cooperation partners. It does not portray a complete picture to evaluate sense of gain solely based on the aspects of satisfaction and happiness in the Internet era. Zhu said that in the field of public service, people’s sense of gain can be divided into such perspectives as utilization, participation, satisfaction, trust and happiness, which are relevant to performance evaluation, public satisfaction and service quality.

“The sense of gain is a form of need, meaning that supply-side structural reform of public service is destined to focus on practical issues,” said Peng Zongchao, deputy director of the School of Public Management at Tsinghua University. Coordination with the demand side is the prerequisite for successful implementation of reform and innovation.

Zhu argued that efforts made by public service providers will be unsatisfactory if suppliers fail to meet people’s urgent needs. Therefore, a mechanism framework bridging public service providers and the general public is required.

At present, mass entrepreneurship and innovation are vibrant. Experience of public service directly affects people’s passion to start businesses and innovate, thus impacting the progress of innovation in the long term.

In circumstances like this, social welfare and security can act as regulator of entrepreneurship and innovation as they are two key parts of public service. They can help prevent risks to encourage public enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and innovation and improve their sense of safety, said Gao Xiaoping, deputy director of the Chinese Public Administration Society.

Supply-side structural reform targeting greater sense of gain should emphasize innovating supplies of public service and relevant quality control and performance-evaluation systems.

Equalization in the process of urbanization is the primary focus of reforming the supply side of basic public service. Xu Meihua, former general secretary of the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee, said that people in different regions have varying needs for basic public service. Some demands that have been satisfied in economically developed regions may still be unmet in undeveloped areas. Reform should pay attention to specific demands in scattered regions and achieve a dynamic form of equalization, Xu added.

“It is worthwhile to discuss how to share the achievements of reform and development of public service among the public, including farmers, citizens and the people who have migrated from rural to urban areas. Their sense of gain should be valued,” suggested Huang Lihua, Party secretary of the School of Management at Fudan University.

 

Li Yu is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.