Xinhua Silk Road: 4 decades on, gov’t hotline in NE China Liaoning’s Shenyang evolves into provincial integrated service platform

BEIJING, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — From a mayor’s hotline only available in its capital city to today’s integrated public service platform “12345” covering the whole province, northeast China’s Liaoning Province has been continuously improving its government service hotline system through the last four decades.

In 1983, Shenyang, capital city of Liaoning Province, launched a mayor’s hotline to directly listen to the needs of local citizens. It was later developed into the “96123” municipal public service hotline that combines functions of phone calls, internet and mailbox in the year 2009.

In 2021, Liaoning further integrated its multiple government service helplines into the unified province-wide hotline “12345”. With upgraded background system, “12345” had built up efficient connections among operators, community workers and administrative departments, making possible fast and effective responds toward public appeals.

“The ‘12345’ platform allows us to provide more timely and detailed service to our residents,” said Xu Chang, a community worker in Shenyang’s Heping District. It is learned that the city has built upon the “12345” platform a mechanism that includes 15 public service departments in fields of urban management, real estate, health, etc., supported by 7766 professional community workers, so as to better integrate online and offline service systems.

In recent years, Liaoning Province has also been striving to improve business environment by enhancing support to business entities. By opening an extension that specifically provides service to enterprises, the “12345” platform has so far gathered 70,000 professional service managers who have offered policy advice, financial matchmaking, legal affairs and other services to 1.68 million business entities. A recent survey shows that 89.8 percent of business entities in the province believe that such services are helpful.

In addition, Liaoning Province has set up a special sector on the “12345” platform where citizens can submit videos or pictures at any time in description of their questions or concerns, allowing relevant departments to give quick respond. As of September this year, the province had solved 151,000 appeals through this channel.

Through decades of development, Liaoning’s “12345” has grown into a convenient platform integrating multiple functions including public service, consultation and complaints, promoting the formation of a new pattern of social governance featuring co-construction, co-governance and sharing.

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