Lien Chinese Public Service Index

The aim of the Index was to track the longitudinal change of citizens’ and businesses’ opinions on urban governments and public services in China and consists of the following three general dimensions:

Citizen Perspective
Business Perspective
General Public Service
Solicits citizens' opinions on nine essential public services such as public education, public healthcare, housing, social security, public safety, infrastructure, recreation and sports facilities, environmental protection, and public  transportation, government efficacy, government transparency, citizen participation and political trust.
Assesses government performance in the areas of business environment, essential public services, government efficacy and business participation from businesses' perspective.
Evaluates government public service performance based on hard data collected from individual city statistics yearbook.

Table 2: Dimensions of citizens’ and businesses’ opinions tracked in the Lien Public Service Index for Chinese Cities

The survey was first administered in 2010 and subsequently on an annually basis until 2014 over the 5-year period. Each year, more than 300,000 phone calls were made to obtain a randomly selected scientific sample of over 25,000 citizens and more than 3,000 companies in those cities, believed to be the most comprehensive and largest sample ever conducted in this field in China. The project also sought the advice from the heads of relevant government offices in Hangzhou, Xiamen, Chengdu, Shenyang and Hefei. The survey took cities’ basic situations and infrastructures into account, and the objective and archival data can complement and corroborate the subjective and perceptional data gleaned by telephone survey.

The Project has produced a fair amount of academic works, attracted wide media coverage and generated considerable policy impacts. Its annual city rankings have been widely covered by the main media and circulated among government officials, business managers, academic researchers and the ordinary public. Several important studies based on the data of the Project have been well received in internationally prestigious academic conferences and journals. Findings of the survey were published every year in the “Lien Chinese Cities Public Service Quality Index” report. The report ranked the ten best-performing cities annually, as well as the “Top Ten Cities with Service-oriented Government” in China. They were ranked under the following categories: “Service-oriented Government (Citizen Satisfaction)”, “Service-oriented Government (Business Satisfaction)”, and “Service-oriented Government (Provision of General Public Services)”. For example, the cities awarded the “Lien 2014 Top Ten Chinese Cities with Service-oriented Government” were Xiamen, Shenyang, Qingdao, Chongqing, Shenzhen/Hangzhou (tied), Dalian, Nanjing, Chengdu, Hefei and Shanghai. Key findings of this Project have also been adopted by several city governments in China to adjust public policies and improve public satisfaction. ​

连氏中国公共服务研究


近数十年来，中国各级政府越来越注重服务品质，致力为公众和企业提供优良的公共服务。南洋公共管理研究生院2010年推出的“连氏服务型政府指数”，被证明是评估中国各城市政府公共服务水平的重要工具。

“连氏服务型政府指数”由新加坡著名慈善组织连氏基金资助，南洋公共管理研究生院与中国知名高校联合实施。该指数将“服务型政府”定义为：“基于公民本位和社会本位的理念，以廉洁负责、法治高效、透明公开、民主参与为基本原则，将公共服务供给置于政府职能的中心并着力构建和完善公共服务体系，从而为公民和企业发展营造良好的制度环境，不断满足公众日益增长的物质文化需求并赢得广大人民群众信任和支持的政府”。

该指数由“服务型政府的公众视角”、“服务型政府的企业视角”和“基本公共服务”三个维度构成。每年评选“中国服务型政府十佳城市”以及“服务型政府（公众视角）”、“服务型政府（企业视角）”、“服务型政府（基本公共服务维度）”的十佳城市。

调查人员利用计算机辅助电话访问（CATI）系统，追踪大中华地区38座城市的公众和企业对公共服务与政府管理的满意度。该项目发展至今，已涵盖了中国大陆所有直辖市、省会城市或自治区首府、副省级城市，以及香港和台北，访问了十万以上居民和上万家企业。

这个项目反映了中国城市服务型政府建设有待改善的主要领域，值得各地政府的密切关注。该项目不仅为公共管理学术研究提供了宝贵的纵贯调查数据，有助于中国政府推动公共管理改革并提升公共治理和公共服务绩效；也为企业投资选点等提供了客观的参考。

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