It is important to provide legal guarantees for public participation in the drafting of government regulations, says a signed article in China Youth Daily. An excerpt follows:

Starting from next year, the public can participate in the drafting of all local rules and regulations by the municipal government of Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, regardless of whether these are directly connected with public interests or not.

It is the first time in the country that such a municipal regulation on public participation has been passed. Such a move took a great deal of courage on the part of the Guangzhou municipal government, as it may bring some inconvenience to its work. But this attempt reflects a more open and magnanimous attitude on the part of the local authorities. And it also points to increased government confidence.

Government regulations set the directions for our daily work. The interests of all parties are involved in these regulations and public opinions should be taken into account. But in some places, the public has no way of helping to draft such regulations. Some government officials work out policies alone without referring to the actual needs of the people they are meant to serve. And the resulting rules and regulations are generally impractical, something that has impaired the quality of the government's work and resulted in public complaints.

Now the Guangzhou municipal government is to guarantee the effective participation of all interest groups in the drafting of policies. This move will help the government get a better understanding of public opinion and win it greater public support.

According to the Legislation Law and related regulations, public participation is a basic rule of legislation. As there is still no unified regulation in this regard, many practical problems remain.

Public opinion, for example, is only studied inside the administrative department without open explanation. Meanwhile, decision-making procedures remain opaque and have no feedback mechanism. Furthermore, public participation is not clearly defined. Who can participate and how they can participate remain unclear.

The Guangzhou municipal government ought to be commended for this regulation, which solves many of these problems.