To promote greater openness in government affairs, the Guangzhou municipal government will put into effect new regulations for press conferences concerning the government's routine meetings from Dec. 1, Xinhua reported.

According to the new procedure, each press conference will be generally limited to 40 minutes. Each spokesperson will explain a topic for discussion within five minutes and take questions for two minutes.

The new regulations have prompted industry leaders and other interested parties to question how the rule will affect government transparency, and have begun asking for clarification.

Gao Yazhou, general manager of Changsha-based Yuanjing Waste Materials Collection Co. Ltd., expressed his views on this issue in an article published on Nov. 28 entitled "What kind of addition and subtraction should the government press conferences do?"

In the article, Gao said the new methods give more detailed rules and regulations for press conferences, such as a word limit for government spokesperson's lecture, a range limit of topics for discussion, and time limit for press conferences.

However, there are many points about the new rules that raise suspicion, Gao said. Will the limits have a negative impact on or run counter to openness in government affairs? If a topic for discussion is a matter of common concern and can't be explained clearly within two minutes, or it is not within the topic range, should it be abruptly stopped when time is up or simply be skipped? he asked. If this is the case, the increased "openness" in government affairs the rules are supposed to provide would just be empty talk.

A good system and proper management standards are inseparable, Gao emphasized. A managerial staff should have their eyes on a fixed goal, and realize it by improving both in content and in form. In this regard, management means addition and subtraction: to add substantial content and subtract unnecessary items.

Standard management of press conferences involves many aspects, Gao said, such as getting rid of official jargon and empty formulas, simplifying question approval procedures, and giving more freedom to the media to raise questions.

In the new regulations, some subtractions seem to be standardized, but actually are insignificant, he said. They run counter to government transparency and turn out to be just the opposite. So, more efforts have to be made to improve openness in government affairs.

(The original article was published on www.opinion.china.com.cn in Chinese and was translated by Li Jingrong.)

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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