Weibo, known as the Chinese version of Twitter, has become a phenomenon in China. This social media tool has become so powerful that the authorities have started using it for communication with the people. And they are seeking a more effective use of this platform. A government affairs weibo meeting is being held in Chengdu of Sichuan Province this Wednesday.

A reward for the pioneers and the efforts they made. The 2012 Sina Government Affairs Weibo meeting in Chengdu gathers officials from western China to share their experience of using weibo for government affairs. For them, it's become a new platform to communicate with the people.

Deng Qingxu, deputy chief editor, Sina, said,"The verified government users of Sina weibo have reached 60,000 as of October 2012. And it is not only used for publishing information, but also solving problems."

Born in 2009, Sina weibo, the biggest microblog service in China, has become an influential media for public events and debates. More and more government departments have started using it as a new way to dialogue and work with people.

Zhu Huaxin, Peopleyuqing.com, said,"2011 is the year of opening weibo accounts for government departments. And 2012 is the year of interacting with people. For example, the nationwide police forces used hundreds of weibo accounts to urge people to protest peacefully during the diaoyu island dispute earlier this year."

The key to success is in the ability to listen. That's according to Du Shaozhong, a famous micro-blogger with over 2 million followers.

Du Shaozhong, chairman of China Beijing Evnironment Exchange, said,"Government can't sit anywhere high up on weibo. Instead, they have to put themselves on an equal position to talk with people."

Cooperation between different departments also scores high.

Liu Xiao Ming, engineer, Yinghuang City Gov't, Ningxia, said,"When the locals make complaints online, they don't know which department they should talk to, and they just simply tweet or send messages to us. We will forward these to related offices and ensure problems will be solved."

Different from the traditional ways of communication, weibo has brought more opportunities as well as challenges to the authorities.

Lin Nan, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, said,"In past two year, about 100,000 government departments and officials have opened weibo accounts to play a more active role online. And this is just the first step, there are still a lot for them to find out how to make the most of this social media and enable people to have more say in public debates.

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