Chen Wenjun:

The press conference has been going on for nearly an hour, and we will now take the last two questions.

Beijing Radio & Television Station:

Mr. Yin, as Beijing residents, we often call the 12345 citizen service hotline when we encounter problems in our daily lives. We find its response and resolution processes to be effective and convenient, and we hope that the hotline can become even more effective and convenient in the future. How will Beijing deepen the reform of the mechanism of prompt handling of public complaints to better serve the people in the future? Thank you.

Yin Yong:

Thank you for your question. The mechanism of prompt handling of public complaints is a practice that originated from grassroots efforts in serving our citizens. It is an effective means for us to solve pressing difficulties and problems that concern the people most and carry out urban governance that is attentive to detail. It is also an important means for us to implement the philosophy of "the city is built by the people, and the city is for the people."

This reformative practice of serving the people with practical actions has gone through three stages: "departments responding to the call of the township government," "prompt handling of public complaints," and "resolving problems before receiving the public complaints." As early as 2017, a working mechanism of "departments responding to the call of the township government" was established in Jinhaihu, a town in Pinggu district, Beijing, to address the issue of illegal mining. In 2018, we completed a review of and promoted the experiences, implementing the mechanism of "all departments responding to the call of the sub-district and township governments" citywide to improve the efficiency of solving problems for the people. This marked the first stage. In 2019, we improved the mechanism, requiring all departments responding to the call of the sub-district and township governments to process public complaints without delay, and established a service mechanism centered on the 12345 citizen service hotline. This approach allowed for quick responses, efficient handling, and prompt feedback on public complaints and demands. This was the second stage. In 2021, in response to several high-frequency issues commonly reported by the public, we established a "solving one problem per month" working mechanism and proactively addressed major concerns before receiving the public complaints, which marked the third stage. The reformative practice of prompt handling of public complaints has yielded significant results. Last year, the 12345 hotline received an average of nearly 60,000 calls daily and processed 21.44 million complaints from citizens throughout the year, roughly equating to one complaint per resident. The public complaints were 100% responded, of which 95.5% were resolved, and the satisfaction rate reached 96.1%.

Going forward, we will strive to meet citizens' needs for a better life, assuring to handle public complaints promptly. As for the reform this year, we will focus on three key areas: First, we will continue to optimize hotline services and improve the whole working system for receiving complaints, assignments, handlings, and assessments. Particularly, we will improve the mechanism for assessment, effectively utilizing assessment as a tool to ensure more reasonable allocation of public service resources. We will strengthen language services for foreigners, gradually improving the service capabilities of the city as an international exchange center. We will further optimize hotline services for enterprises and dispel enterprises' concerns to make requests. We will enhance integrated hotline services in the Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin region to reduce the need for cross-regional travel. Second, we will conduct monthly campaigns. Based on big data analysis focused on citizens' complaints, we have specified 13 specialized governance tasks, including improving park management services and solving difficulties related to people's well-being. Third, we will leverage data resources, taking public complaints and requests as a means to precisely analyze public opinion, and transform their voices into a reference for decision-making, further improving the ability of joint and precise urban governance. 

Our effort to ensure prompt handling of public complaints is an ongoing process, and there's no end to it. We will do our best to serve our citizens. Thank you.

Economic Daily:

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. What will Beijing do to better leverage its wealth of innovation to benefit the entire region, promoting collaborative innovation and industrial cooperation across Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei? Thank you.

Yin Yong:

Thank you for your question. I will answer it. The coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is a major national strategy. In advancing the implementation of the strategy in recent years, we have continuously deepened our understanding and increasingly felt that the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is a region with the most complementary resource endowments in China. Why do we say that? As is widely known, Beijing boasts advantages in technology, talent and capital. Tianjin has favorable conditions in terms of key industrial layout, port trade and freight logistics. Hebei is highly competitive in natural resources and labor force and has great development potential. Therefore, the three regions are complementary in their advantages, and can realize coordinated development.

In the past 10 years, we have built and improved an integrated working mechanism in the three regions according to arrangements and decisions of the CPC Central Committee, and have accomplished various tasks and objectives in integrated regional development through lists and programs. We accelerated the formation of "one core and two wings," with the framework in Beijing's sub-center now fully operational. Before the Spring Festival this year, we completed the relocation of a second batch of municipal administrative agencies. So far, nearly 30,000 municipal agency staff members work at the sub-center. Xiong'an New Area is developing with sound momentum. Three colleges and one hospital there are already in operation with support from Beijing. The Zhongguancun Science and Technological Park in the Xiong'an New Area is also in operation. The development of regional integrated transportation has yielded fruitful results with travel among Beijing, Tianjin, and Xiong'an only taking half an hour. The commute time of major cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has been shortened to 1 to 1.5 hours. Joint prevention, control and governance of ecological environment has been  continuously deepened. The average density of fine particulate matters in the three regions was reduced by about 60% compared with 10 years ago in 2013. Collaborative innovation and industrial cooperation have been continuously deepened. In 2023, the value of Beijing's technological contracts with Tianjin and Hebei increased tenfold compared to 10 years ago.

Next, Beijing will work with Tianjin and Hebei to focus on technological innovation and industrial coordination, to accelerate developing new quality productive forces and to build a pioneering and demonstration zone for Chinese modernization. We plan to step up efforts in several aspects: First, we will continue to enhance interconnectivity of infrastructure. In a bid to ensure the smooth circulation of people, goods and other elements, we will improve the regional highway network, speed up the construction of inter-city railways and promoting interconnectivity of regional air, land and sea ports. Second, we will deepen coordination of innovation chains and industrial chains. Centering on industrial chains such as hydrogen power and bio-manufacturing, we will roll out tailored policies for each industry to further expand industrial chains and provide supporting facilities, as well as jointly build advanced manufacturing clusters. Third, we will work together to optimize local conditions for development. We will build integrated regional business environments and advance the release of an action plan for fostering first-class business within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. In terms of administrative services, we will set equal standards for similar items. For example, we will increase the number of enterprises' mutual recognition of qualifications and certifications to over 20. As for public services, joint construction and shared benefits will be enhanced so that high-quality education and medical resources in Beijing will serve more people in the region. Thank you. 

Chen Wenjun:

Thank you, Mr. Yin, other speakers and friends from the media. Today's briefing is hereby concluded. Goodbye.

Translated and edited by Wang Yiming, Xu Xiaoxuan, Zhang Rui, Zhou Jing, Yan Bin, Yuan Fang, Liu Caiyi, Liu Sitong, Qin Qi, Wang Yanfang, Zhou Jing, Zhu Bochen, Wang Ziteng, Wang Wei, Xiang Bin, Huang Shan, Liu Jianing, Li Huiru, Wang Qian, David Ball, Rochelle Beiersdorfer and Jay Birbeck. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.