From April 22nd to 23rd, the 6th Public Management Young Scholar Forum (hereafter “the Forum”), organized by the School of Public Policy and Management (SPPM) and the Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance (CIDEG) of Tsinghua University, was held in Beijing. The Forum brought together invited guests and young scholars from part of colleges and universities in China, conducted in-depth discussion involving the theme “Chinese Path to Modernization and the Revolution of Public Management”.

The opening ceremony of the Forum was presided over by prof. Xie Jin, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Party Committee and Associate Dean of the SPPM at Tsinghua University. Prof. Zhu Xufeng, Dean of the SPPM at Tsinghua University, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech.

Prof. Bao Guoxian, Honorary Dean of LUSM and the director of Research Center for Chinese Government Performance Management, delivered report titled “Challenges and Revolution Directions of Public Management in China: An Analysis Based on China County-Level Government Performance Index” at the invitation of the forum organizer.

Prof. Bao Guoxian pointed out that in the face of an era of high complexity, uncertatinty, and ambiguity, the study of public management is also facing new challenges, requiring rethinking and exploration of focus, agenda and process of its theory and practice. Based on the goals and challeneges of Chinese path to modernization, prof. Bao started with the introduction of the first “China County-Level Government Performance Index” developed by Research Center of Chinese Government Performance Management for more than a decade’s thooretical research and practical exploration, analysed the problems and challenges faced by the modernization of county-level governance in China respectively in terms of government environment, market environment, rule of law environment, government cacacity, public services, and urban-rural disparities. Moreover, prof. Bao proposed the paths and directions that support achieving public management reform in China from optimizing business environment, deepening administrative system reform, promoting equalization of basic public services, continuously improving government capacity, and promoting rural revitalization strategy through government performance governance.

[Background Information]

Based on the “PV-GPG” theory and relying on big data and other techniques, China County-Level Government Performance Index (hereafter “the Index”) is the first national County-Level Government Performance Index developed by prof. Bao Guoxian and his team after more than a decade’s efforts. In 2019, The 1st Index Research Report was officially released in Beijing, covered by medias including People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, Guangming Daily, and Economic Daily etc. The 2nd Index Research Report is about to be released in 2023, which will provide a theoretical basis for the high-quality development of counties and the implementation of rural revitalization strategies in China, offer academic support for deepening administrative system reform and improving the level of governance modernization, bring academic resources for the development of public management and related disciplines in China, and supply essential support for LZU to strive for a first-class discipline in public management. The research outcomes related to the Index were published and released by Social Science Academic Press (China), among which the Blue Book of County-Level Government Performance: China County-Level Government Performance Index Research Report (2021) won the 2022 Outstanding Achievement Grand Prize of CTTI Source Think Tank.