The Seminar on Government Transparency and Openness of Government Affairs (2019) was held in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province on May 30-31, 2019. The seminar was sponsored by CASS Law Institute, jointly organized by CASS Center for the Studies of National Index of Rule of Law and the People’s Government of Jiangbei District of Ningbo City, and attended by over 200 representatives, including experts and scholars from such universities and research institutions as Renmin University of China, China University of Political Science and Law, CASS and Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, government officials from the Ministry of Transformation and other ministries and commissions under the State Council, and leading cadres in charge of the work of openness of government affairs of the governments of 16 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, such the governments of Beijing Municipality, Shanghai Muncipality, Zhejiang Province, and Guangdong Province.
At the opening ceremony, presided over by Mr. Xu Huixiang, the executive deputy head of Jiangbei District, Professor Chen Guoping, Secretary of Joint Party Committee of CASS Law Institute and CASS Institute of International Law, Mr. Jin Pingqiang, Director of the Enforcement Department of the Higher People’s Court of Zhejiang Province, and Mr. Chen Bingrong, Deputy Mayor of Ningbo City, each gave an opening speech.
On the morning of May 30, Professor Li Lin, the former director of CASS Law Institute, Professor Fang Ning, Secretary of the Party Committee of CASS Institute of Political Science, and Professor Lu Yanbin, Head of the Department of Survey and Studies of National Situation of Rule of Law of CASS Law Institute, each gave a keynote speech on “Strict Law Enforcement and Openness of Government Affairs against the Background of Legal Transition”, “the Functions and Values of the Openness of Government Affairs in State Governance”, and “The Revision of the Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information and the Prospect of the Openness of Government Affairs in China”, respectively.
After the keynote speeches, CASS Law Institute formally launched the Annual Report on Government Transparency in China (2018), the Third-Party Assessment Report on the Disclosure of Government Information in China (2018), and Assessment Report on the Publication of Annual Work Reports on the Disclosure of Government Information (2019). At the launching ceremony, presided over by Professor Wen Xueguo, Dean of the Law School of Shanghai University, Dr. Li Yanjie and Dr. Wang Weiming introduced the main content of each report.
During the two-day seminar, the participants gave keynote speeches and carried out discussions on various issues around such topics as “the construction of the mechanism for the openness of government affairs”, “openness of government affairs and government governance”, and “pilot work on the openness of government affairs at the grassroots level”.
At the closing, presided over by Professor Lu Yanbin, Head of the Department of Survey and Studies of National Situation of Rule of Law of CASS Law Institute, Professor Tian He, Director of the CASS Center for the Studies of National Index of the Rule of Law, gave a closing speech, in which she summarized the issues discussed in the seminar, thanked the organizers of the seminar for their hard work and declared the successful conclusion of the seminar.
