A leading information official said the city Government was requiring all its departments to appoint a spokesman to handle queries.

The deputy director of the Municipal Information Office, Jiao Yang, was quoted in the official Shanghai Daily as saying "the new policy is designed to bring the local government in line with international practices and increase government transparency.”

Shanghai has for several years been at the cutting edge of moves to make the Government more responsive.

Former mayor Xu Kuangdi led the city in becoming more accessible to its own residents, overseas investors and foreign reporters.

Mr Xu, who was recently removed from his post, presided over the Shanghai Government when it launched everything from official hotlines to a user-friendly government Web site. The site, at www.sh.gov.cn, still publishes everything from periodic messages from the mayor to a city gazette, to the most recent city laws in Chinese and English.

The site also offers an e-mail address for users to send their feedback.

After Mr Xu's departure, the city is still committed to moving forward on transparency and even interactivity.

Top officials said recently they wanted to start building the foundations of an "electronic government.”

An unidentified official was quoted in the Shanghai Daily as saying steps to make the Government more interactive via the Web were aimed at making the "local government become more open, fair and efficient.”

Meanwhile, information official Mr Jiao said that after the new government public relations officials underwent training, "every two weeks, the information office will organize a press conference and the spokespersons from one or two city government departments will be invited to brief the media."

(China Daily February 9, 2002)