Deputies to the municipal people's congress in Yantai, East China's Shandong province, have endeavored to improve the livelihoods of local people with suggestions on upgrading operations of the city's 12345 public service hotline, which is an important channel to learn about and respond to people's concerns, according to the Standing Committee of the Yantai Municipal People's Congress.

Yu Deli, a deputy to the local people's congress, proposed improving the supervision mechanism of the local public service hotline, helping operators become more capable of handling various inquiries and enhancing the capability of functional departments to solve problems.

Another deputy, Leng Xiaoyan, suggested that Yantai establish a data bank of FAQs (frequently asked questions) on policies and regulations, and set up a mechanism that directly assigns work generated from public inquires to relevant functional divisions.

To ensure effective handling of such suggestions, deputies to people's congresses at national, provincial and municipal levels in Yantai inspected the city's 12345 public service center on Sept 20, and held a meeting to hear a report on the center's service operations.

During the inspection, deputies agreed that the municipal legislature's supervision should play a better role in fostering a benign interaction mechanism between deputies and the hotline center, turning the hotline into a platform and a window through which the Yantai municipal committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the municipal government can garner social opinions and build a bridge that links the government with the people.

Closer supervision and promotion by the local legislature have accelerated the city government’s efforts to adopt the deputies’ suggestions, which has in turn improved the operation of the hotline center and boosted integrated efforts among functional departments to handle problems effectively and efficiently.

As a result, the number of the hotline operators in Yantai has increased from more than 120 to 270 . Work assessment and supervision have been strengthened and the handling of public inquiries is regularly reported to the Yantai CPC municipal committee and the municipal government.

The public service hotline center has also attached importance to the analysis and research of its big data, focusing on social issues and typical cases. Hotline information bulletins have been introduced as a reference for scientific decision-making by the local government.

The efforts of the Standing Committee of the Yantai Municipal People's Congress in adopting local deputies' suggestions to enhance the administrative and service efficiency of the local government has encouraged deputies to better perform their duties.

Deputies expressed their expectation that the 12345 public service hotline will play a better role in helping solve people's problems, gathering wisdom, winning support and promoting social harmony.