Officials swap jobs to advance integration plan

Source:Xinhua Published: 2016/7/10 20:13:00

The results of the civil servant recruitment process in Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei Province are unveiled on May 16, 2015. A total of 13,562 candidates won a chance to be interviewed to compete for 4,857 jobs last year in Shijiazhuang. Photo: CFP

When Lü Zhenqian arrived in Chengde, North China' Hebei Province last year to fill a high-ranking government post, he knew little about the northern city that was once a summer resort for China's emperors.

"Before I came, my knowledge of Chengde was no better than that of the average tourist," said Lü, 34, who has worked in government for a decade and was previously a policy researcher in Beijing's Fengtai district.

Last July, Hebei and Beijing each traded 100 people as part of the government switch-up to help officials understand other cities across the region. The program will continue until 2020, with 200 civil servants trading places every year. Officials from nearby Tianjin are also expected to join the program.

The officials are assigned posts in another city based on their expertise, and in some cases, jobs are created for them. The exchanges last at least a year, and participating officials can apply for extensions.

Bridging the megalopolis

China rolled out the integration plan for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in 2015 to address urbanization problems such as traffic and air pollution and seek balanced development in the region.

Under the plan, Beijing will act as the national center of "political, cultural, and international exchange activities" as well as a technological innovation center, while the political and administrative center, while Hebei will be a national base for trade and logistics, an experimental area for industrial transition and upgrading, a demonstration area of modern urbanization and coordinated development of urban and rural areas, and an ecological buffer zone.

Zhang Gui, an expert on Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration at Hebei University of Technology, said officials who participated in the first year of the exchange are enthusiastic about the program.

"The officials have served as bridges, connecting different departments and industries and improving cooperation," said Zhang.

 "Many program participants said they have a deeper understanding of what needs to be done to achieve integration," he said.

Bigger picture

"Changing posts has helped officials see the bigger picture and reach beyond city divides," said Zhang.

As deputy director of Chengde's development and reform department, Lü Zhenqian has spent a lot of time visiting the 11 districts and counties under the city's jurisdiction.

According to the regional integration plan, Chengde, located a three-hour drive northeast of Beijing, will play an important role in water conservation for the urban cluster. The city's Chaohe River supplies water to the Miyun Reservoir, Beijing's largest water source.

Lü helped Chengde secure more than 22 million yuan ($3.29 million) from Beijing's water resources fund, about 4 million more than the year before. The money will be used to fund irrigation facilities, village landfills and reforestation programs in Chengde.

Lü has also helped the city develop industry, such as agricultural processing, to create jobs without damaging the environment.

"I came to realize that though Beijing is the capital, it cannot siphon away all the resources and stand on its own if it wants clean air, clean water and to be a well-functioning metropolis," he said.

Improving infrastructure

Liang Zhonglin, a vice mayor of Zhuozhou, a small city in Hebei, has been enjoying his new gig in Beijing's Zhongguancun, sometimes called "China's Silicon Valley." As a human resources official on the Zhongguancun Management Committee, he has gotten to know some of China's most talented tech experts.

"Zhongguancun is a well of innovation, but many of its creations are taken to cities in the Yangtze River Delta, or further down south to the Pearl River Delta, which have better industrial infrastructure to turn ideas into products," he said.

"Hebei needs to increase its appeal to innovators," he said.

In January, Zhuozhou and Zhongguancun signed an agreement to support entrepreneurship.

Changes have already been happening in Zhuozhou and further east. Caofeidian, an industrial zone near the Bohai Sea, is expanding quickly with new companies, hospitals and schools.

Shui Yong, a deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Investment Promotion Bureau, has been assigned to serve as vice mayor of Tangshan and chief coordinator for Caofeidian district as part of the exchange.

In 2015, Caofeidian signed 75 deals with Beijing and Tianjin, with a total investment of more than 245 billion yuan, he said. Construction has also started on a new campus of the Jingshan School, one of Beijing's best middle schools.


Newspaper headline: Trading places


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