Government departments address public concerns via Weibo

Local governments across China are using Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, to provide quicker responses to emergencies, a report said on Thursday.

In addition to speeding up the response time, the quality of their posts has also improved, according to the report by People's Daily and Sina Weibo.

"In emergencies, such as when a person was injured by a tiger at Ningbo Zoo, or when substandard electric cables were found in the Xi'an subway system, local authorities responded in an efficient manner, providing information via Sina Weibo," the report said, adding that such actions help to address public concerns.

So far, nearly 170,000 governmental departments have created accounts, with a particularly rapidly increase in the number of departments at the lowest level using such services.

Governmental micro blogs first appeared about five years ago. They have grown in popularity among officials and are used by authorities to explain policies and address emergencies, the report said.

Complaints about insufficient interaction with netizens have also been addressed, according to the report, which added that some departments have also created dedicated online channels for citizens to file reports.

Sina Weibo said it encourages the creation of official accounts to respond to issues via videos or live streaming, adding that it aims to carry out evaluations of accounts to alert those that fail to operate effectively or rarely interact with netizens.