Xu Guangchong, a human resources expert, described the training program as a good initiative. Yet he also voiced concerns about such a large-scale systematic project having the potential to waste money. Xu's worries were based on previous experiences. In recent years, government officials have traveled abroad in droves under the banner of learning from the experiences of developed countries. The best-known case is the Harvard training plan. According to a contract signed by the Development Research Center of the State Council, Tsinghua University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government (KSG) of Harvard University, the Chinese Government sent 300 senior officials to receive training at KSG over the period of five years from 2002. This was China's largest ever overseas training program for government officials, and the cost for the three-week course was a staggering 200,000 yuan, a figure that raised public eyebrows over whether it was really good value for money.

Reports have estimated that the cost of Chinese officials' overseas training has surpassed its budget for many years. For example, the budget for 1998 stood at around $5 billion while the actual expenditure was $28 billion; the budget for 2000 was about $7 billion while the actual expenditure $32 billion.

"The mammoth budget for officials' overseas study trips has caused serious waste," said Mao Shoulong, Dean of School of Administration of Renmin University of China.

The new round of civil servants training also includes overseas study excursions. The government agencies in charge of organizing the training have emphasized in documents that sightseeing in the name of training is strictly forbidden and government officials will be held responsible if cases are exposed.

Actually similar rules and regulations have been released before, but the phenomenon of sightseeing in the name of conducting surveys or receiving training has never been rooted out. Because of this many people continue to be concerned that the latest round of training exercises could lead to a new wave of sightseeing on government accounts.

Transparent training

Wu Ruidong, a freelance writer, believes that transparency would guarantee quality from the government training program. In his opinion the trend for lavish spending, travel abroad, and sightseeing days can be attributed to the government's failure to publicize facts, such as the cost of training programs, to the general public. Spending on training should actually be decreasing, he added, as a result of developments in information technology. Now training courses could be run over the Internet, through videos, or by inviting foreign lecturers to China. The organization of overseas training courses should be strictly controlled if not forbidden, he added.