Keynote Speaker: Cai Dingjian
Discussants: Yang Zhiyong, Jia Junxue, Wen Laicheng

In recent years, the public and media have paid more attention on the public budget. Prof. Cai Dingjian summarized the public budget reform in China and described in detail the practice of Minhang District in Shanghai.

Prof. Cai and his colleagues have do a full range of public budget reform in Minhang District in Shanghai, according to the Ministry of Finance Revenue and Expenditure reform program. The reform followed the principle of scientific, democratic management and sunshine financial, in order to achieve the following three objectives: first, scientific and detailed budgeting; Second, the democratization and procedural of budget review; Third, the scientific supervision of budget implementation and the establishment of budget performance evaluation system. Prof. Cai subsequently described in detail the specific reform measures, the first is to reform the budgeting. They designed a budget form which was classified by sectors. Again is to increase public participation, promoting the hearing regulation and the system that letting the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress considering the budget in advance. The final is to regulate the budget settlement and design a department budget performance assessment indicators and implementation related.

Prof. Yang Zhiyong believed that in the existing system, the NPC was difficult to play a supervisory role. We could emphasize technological change first, and then improve budget transparency, so that other problems may gradually be solved.

Prof. Jia Junxue thought that we had to learn to interpret the government budget and pay attention to the issue caliber. In addition, constitutional need principles, but must be operational as well. Minhang's performance evaluation was very innovative, but the specific operation would encounter many problems. How to refine and quantitative the principle also need to be considered.

Prof. Wen Laicheng pointed that the words of wrong of “budget reform” or “planned economy” and raised the issue how to choose the starting point of the reform of public budgets in the current: taking the technology route or the democratic process.

Jan. 29th, 2010