"Government of the citizens, for the citizens and by the citizens" has been pledged by Guangzhou municipal government, as it plans to put all planned administrative regulations up for public scrutiny.

This southern metropolis has always been as a trailblazer, having opened its official archives and data before any other city in China.

And now this improvement in the city's democracy is likely to attract nationwide attention.

Officials said the authorities will work harder to ensure that local people have a greater say in the policy-making process, guaranteeing greater public support for regulations and their more efficient carrying out.

A website was launched last month by the local government to give residents a further opportunity to take part in local democracy.

Qin Yaoguang, secretary-general of the Guangzhou municipal government, said local residents will be able to get information about urban planning, key projects, financial administration, personnel changes online this year.

Residents are expected to send e-mails to the mayor and lodge complaints they may have about the work of the local government.

Government purchasing will be put under stricter public supervision as projects should only be set up after public bidding.

As the city expands the coverage of governmental purchases, the municipal government is redoubling its efforts to improve the purchasing management system and strengthen supervision in order to make the procedure more open, fair and transparent.

Projects involving a purchasing value of more than 500,000 yuan (US$60,240) are subject to public bidding, and projects involving a purchasing value over 5 million yuan (US$602,410) are additionally subject to the supervision of various governmental departments in Guangzhou.

The city recently developed management software to appraise government purchases, pooling some 3,000 experts for 200 purchasing categories. The experts will be chosen by random sampling and automatically informed one day before the appraisal, thereby minimizing concerns about "unfair practices.''

Total government purchasing last year was estimated at 2 billion yuan (US$241 million).

Liu Heng, a professor of public administration with Guangzhou-based Zhongshan University, pointed out that the efforts have helped build up the city's image. benefiting Guangzhou as it competes for funds and technology.

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