"I used to draw up cultural policies by mainly following guidelines from above, but today I tend to consider more about how a new policy will affect the people and the industry."

Liu Yuzhu, director of Culture Market Department of Ministry of Culture, attributed the change of his policy-making philosophy to his two months' intensive training in the Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Five years ago, the then 44-year-old Liu was selected as one of the first group of central government officials sent to study public management in Harvard University.

"The aim of the training program is to broaden the horizon of Chinese officials and enable them to learn advanced working mode and enhance their analyzing, decision-making and ruling capabilities," he said.

In the past several years, local government also followed the suit of the central government to have their local civil servants educated by institutes of higher learning in developed counties.

There have been no national data on how many officials have been trained in development countries, however, incomplete figures from local media may reveal the tip of the iceberg:

-- From 1999 to 2002, over 400 middle level officials from Beijing received overseas training;

-- From 1999 to 2003, 300 officials from Guangdong Province studied in United States and Canada;

-- Since 2001, 55 officials from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have been sent to receive a fifteen month study in developed countries every year.

These training programs have helped Chinese officials to "combine the advanced concept of public management with China's reality and transform them to public polices adaptable to China's national condition," said Ye Duchu, professor of Party School of Central Committee of CPC, in an interview.

"In fact, many officials have a new understanding towards the government's social responsibility after the training," he said. "They are becoming more open-minded and far-sighted, which are very important to China's development."

Since 2002, the training program in Harvard has been held once every year and about 60 government officials were selected to join in the program every year. All the officials must be at least mid-level officials under 45 years old. They also must have at least bachelor's degree and have good command of English.

Edward Cunning, official with KSG of Harvard University said this is the largest training program for officials of a country in the history of Harvard.

The mission of the China Public Policy Program is to support the training of Chinese officials in an effort to enhance their capacity to manage policy in rapidly changing domestic international public environments, Cunning said.

"We think, in a large country like China, the quality and ability of government officials play a vital role in the changing process from planned economy to market economy," Cunning said.

Sun Zhen, an office director from economy and trade department of National Development and Reform Commission, have studied in Duck Sanford Institute of Public Policy in 2006.

"Our training covers a wide range of areas besides public policy, we have other courses on security, public health, education and land management," he said.

As long as Sun had time during his study in Duke, he visited U.S. companies and government. Sun, responsible for regional economic development, has learned lots about regional economic development during his stay in the United States.

"I find the United States also faces unbalanced development of regional economy and we can learn from U.S. experience to promote development of regional economy," he said.

Yu Xinwen, Sun's classmate in Duke said "to learn the experience of developed countries does not mean we must follow them one hundred percent."

Yu, an office director of the Planning and Financing Department of China Meteorological Administration said "the U.S. government is very careful and prudent in making and implementing government plan and polices, but the United States also has some institutional defects."

Yu cited the devastating Hurricane Katrina as an example, saying the weak points of U.S. federal system in emergency response were exposed during the hurricane,"

More Should Be Sent

Ye Duchu, the Central Party School professor, said "though the overseas training for the officials are only short term, many have realized problems of their own and started strategic thinking of similar problems after the training."

"They also think about issues significant to social harmony such as the distribution of wealth and environmental protection," he said, stressing "this need their own observation and experience and cannot be got through books."

"The government should organize more officials to study in developed countries and enable them to learn, to observe and to experience," he said, stressing "this is conducive to promoting China's integration with the world," he said.
 
(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2007)