Transboundary Exchanges of Wisdom, Multidimensional Spotlight on China
——The Successful Hosting of Forum “Government Regulation and Administration under New Normal”

On May 30, 2015, the 40th anniversary celebration of School of Public Administration of UIBE, forum “Government Regulation and Administration under New Normal” was successfully hosted in the school board conference room in Scientific Research Building.

Many reputed experts were invited to the forum discussing government management issues, and the experts included Dean Fan Libo of School of Public Administration of UIBE, Professor Hilton Root from George Mason University, Professor Yang Kaifeng, Dean of School of Public Administration of Renmin University of China, Standing Deputy Director Wu Changqi of IIMBA of Peking University, Professor Li Changan of School of Public Administration of UIBE, Professor Feng Dingguo of Consultation Department of Chinese Culture University and former legislator of People First Part of Taiwan, Professor Fu Jun, Executive Vice President of School of Public Administration of Peking University, Professor Lai Shengde, Dean of School of Economy and Business Administration of Beijing Normal University, Researcher Li Xuehong, Research Director of the Communist Youth League Beijing Committee, Professor Qiu Peien, Director of Institute of Administrative Culture of National School of Administration, and researcher Xia Jiechang, Vice President of Financial Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Professor Lv Weixia from School of Public Administration of UIBE hosted the forum.

                                    
There are two parts of the forum, “topic speech” and “round table discussion”. Professor Fan Libo, on behalf of School of Public Administration, made an English opening speech to greet the guests and start the “topic speech” part. Professor Hilton Root made a speech with the title of “Finance and Innovation: the Function of Finance in Forming Innovation System, and the Experiences of Silicon Valley”. In the speech, Professor Hilton Root took Silicon Valley as the example, and elaborated the social environment needed for innovation. For him, elements including “open industrial structure”, “anarchical special supports”, “venture capital and financial market for high-technique industry” and “government’s policies for improving trust between investors and researchers” were the most important in the needed social environment. At the special period of vigorously promoting “New Normal” in China, “Experiences of Silicon Valley” by Professor Hilton Root is undoubtedly of great significance.

Professor Yang Kaifeng, Dean of School of Public Administration of Renmin University of China, made a speech on “A Few Thoughts about New Normal and Public Administration”. Professor Yang talked about Government administration from point views of government, market and society. He thought China was under transforming, and “although there are some achievements in operational policy reform, there are still more work need to do in constitutional regime, collective action and organizational system”. He also denoted the conception of “speed” has to be clarified under new normal. He reminded that uni-diectivity must be avoided, and summarized that “promoting the transformation of administration matter of factly should be new normal”.

Then Standing Deputy Director Wu Changqi of IIMBA of Peking University gave interpretations of the topic “Competition Policies in Sino-US Bilateral Investment Treaty”. Professor Wu’s speech was focused on trade contradictions between China and the US. He mentioned the long approving time and complicated approving procedures for foreign companies. The US required Post-Establishment National Treatment instead of Pre-Establishment National Treatment for foreign companies, but there is no agreement reached yet. At the same time, the US denounces China’s Antitrust Law, and claims that China suppresses foreign companies to protect local companies. To contradict such statements, Professor Wu took Qualcomm, which was punished in China, as the example. Finally, based on China’s national condition, Professor Wu made a positive anticipation of the public administration subject. Professor Li Changan from School of Public Administration of UIBE made a speech on “the choice of employment policy under economic new normal”. Professor Li talked detailedly about problems such as “the influence of economic growth on expanding employment” and “the influence of industrial structure adjustment on employment”. He pointed the problem of “low quality of employment in China”, discussed China’s employment policy and gave his comments. He also gave suggestions on employment: “China should always counts on economic growth to promote employment enlargement, highlights the fundamental function of investment, and give priority to the employment of university students with the focus on starting business”.

During the “round table discussion”, Professor Feng Dingguo of Consultation Department of Chinese Culture University and former legislator of People First Part of Taiwan, made a speech on “how to employ consulting management system to solve government administration problems”. By statistics and pictures, Professor Feng Dingguo analyzed the governance of Taiwan government, intuitively showing that microorganisms were used to transform city rubbish into useful things. Then he introduced the five administration information systems including “government service platform”, and “government purchasing platform”. These information systems are also used in traffic control, electronic lock of the customs and disaster prevention and monitoring, which brings much convenience to citizens.

Professor Fu Jun, Executive Vice President of School of Public Administration of Peking University, talked about “governance under new normal”. Professor Fu started with Douglas function and noted “there are generalities among different national conditions of countries”. He thought China’s “extensive developing mode” was no longer of any advantages, neither did resources. Reviewing the economic achievements during China’s reforming and opening up, Professor Fu thought it was returning to “normality”, but there was still a gap between China’s current economic status and its target share of global GDP. Professor Fu raised his own views: the modernization of government administration should start from the modernization of thinking, so as to achieve “high efficiency, fairness and freedom”.

Professor Lai Shengde, Dean of School of Economy and Business Administration of Beijing Normal University, talked about “how can China improve innovation”. He reasonably analyzed the statement of “education is the main problem of lacking innovation”. He held the view that education problem was one of the reasons of China’s lack of innovation, but not the primary cause. Unbalanced human resources allocation was the primary cause actually. To solve this problem, Professor Fan viewed that human resources allocation should be reformed, which meant “addition for the market and subtraction for the government”. Conducting reforms on human resources allocation should be the priority of the government’s next stage reform.

Researcher Li Xuehong, Research Director of the Communist Youth League Beijing Committee, gave a speech on “A Research on Exploring Innovation of Youth Work Based on ‘1% Sample Survey of Beijing Teenagers’”. Based on the 1% sample of the survey, Researcher Li Xuehong analyzed problems such as “changes in social structure of teenagers” and “the increase of social mobility”. She particularly talked about “young artist drifters in Beijing” and “the second generations of migrations in Beijing”, so as to explain that the network of Beijing teenagers were mainly connected by family, job and the internet, while elements of geography and hometown were weakened. At last, she ended her speech with a poetry sentence “Devoting Every Effort to Fostering Later Generations”, showing the genuine care from the government to teenagers.

Professor Qiu Peien, Director of Institute of Administrative Culture of National School of Administration, gave a speech on “the focus of government administration under new formal is accelerating reform and innovation”. He suggested a lot: “overall thinking and broader view to realize strategic targets”, “new economic pattern of great power should be initiated”, “relations between the government and market should be well dealt with, market vitality and vigor and social creativity should be stimulated”, and “China should be developed into an innovative country”. Among all these suggestions, he particularly mentioned that he hopep China’s university students who started business could be excellent researchers that guided ideology and decided standards.

Researcher Xia Jiechang, Vice President of Financial Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, made a speech on “regulations and environmental governance of service industry”. He pointed out that service industry was more and important in modern society, but there was too much information asymmetry which should be supervised by the government. He said the government should strengthen its regulation for service industry, such as protecting intellectual property rights and punishing irregular conducts. When analyzing agrarian policy and financing policy, Researcher Xia Jiechang raised his own opinions: registration system instead of examination and approving system, fair tax policy and intellectual property rights protection.

The successful forum ended, but the thinking aroused will last. On the 40 anniversary of School of Public Administration, experts in various fields gather together to exchange wise opinions and look forward to the future of China. These reasonable and wise thoughts provides new opportunities and challenges to talents cultivation and academic research of School of Public Administration, and will exert profound influences on the school’s future development.