In fact, when foreign business people and travelers visit and trade with China, they are much more annoyed by governmental bureaucracy than low language proficiency of civil servants. A wiser solution for Kunming is to employ a number of professional translators and interpreters to serve foreign visitors so that more civil servants will be able to use their limited time to perform their duties more earnestly. Only by this could the government's image be improved.

Zhang Jingwei (Chongqing Times): Honestly, high multilingual proficiency and computer skills will help civil servants with their job. But the policy of forced learning won't do any good. It reflects a governance philosophy that gives more priority to administration by individual competent civil servants than by law.

What's more, when civil servants have to devote so much of their time and energy to leaning foreign languages and computers, their daily work will be affected.

For this reason, the forced learning will not last long, nor will it win broad support, because it is unreasonable.

Public administration is a science and the process of decision-making is an art. Basically, it should follow three guidelines: first, work in accordance with the law; second, be people-oriented, and third, be effective.

Bravo!

Chao Bai (Nanfang Daily): In China, government officials are encouraged to do as much reading as possible. Obviously, the reason is that they have not done enough reading or don't like reading at all. If civil servants are confined to daily work or acts only according to past experience, how could the public expect them to be creative in their work? To be more qualified, civil servants should improve themselves through learning and the learning should be lifelong.

According to media reports, Kunming has been committed to inviting investment from neighboring Southeast Asian countries. To build itself into a bridge connecting Southeast and South Asia, Kunming should prepare its civil servants with necessary capabilities. Currently, Yunnan is witnessing a dearth of translators and interpreters of uncommon foreign languages. Against this background, I don't feel it is obtrusive to force Kunming's civil servants to learn new skills. In addition, the forced learning is people-oriented because it is only applied to those under 50 years old.

The new policy, owing to its originality, may not achieve the original goal. We should offer more space for it to live, rather than kill it at its birth.

Guo Bin (Southern Metropolis Daily): For a long time, the public has been unsatisfied with civil servants for their bureaucracy, disregard for people and poor knowledge. Although the government strived to change that situation, no feasible way has been found.

From my point of view, Kunming's effort this time may serve as a new example. It offers a clear target, strict promotion criteria and rules, which will definitely make local civil servants more aware of the competitive situation they are in and more motivated to learn required subjects. Through the new policy, the self-centered civil servants will have more pressure to learn, and more competent and knowledgeable civil servants will be selected.

Dang Guoping (www.nen.com.cn): According to some people, since Kunming put foreign language proficiency as one of the indicators in appraising civil servants, local civil servants are very likely to ignore their daily duties because they have to devote much time to learning foreign languages. Some people even say that after learning several foreign languages, Kunming's civil servants will treat foreigners warm-heartedly, and compatriots coldly. This is complete nonsense.

We know that foreign language proficiency accounts for only a small part of the assessment. On the other hand, the Kunming Municipal Government has always been emphasizing the importance of improving government agencies' efficiency and civil servants' service consciousness, which are given more importance than language skills in assessment. No civil servant will be so silly as to concentrate on foreign languages over fulfilling their duties.

The foreign language training in Kunming, in itself, does not intend to cultivate local civil servants into professional translators or interpreters, but rather improve their learning awareness and communicative skills, thus improving the government's work.