Govt success based on lessons in law
By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-12 07:18

Zhou Qiang, the governor of Hunan province, could be exemplary of how a law education can make a difference.

In 1978, at age 18, he enrolled at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing municipality. In seven years, he earned a master's degree before embarking on a career at the Ministry of Justice.

But he did not stop at that. The academic rigor of his university education also made him into a man that aimed for precision and conscientiousness in work.

"Thanks to a strict law education, the students of my generation have formed habits of abiding by the law, being pragmatic and pressing ahead despite difficulties," he told China Daily yesterday.

He served at the ministry for 10 years, attaining the post of director of the legal system department before joining the central committee of the Communist Youth League for another decade of "precise and conscientious" work.

Now one of the youngest provincial chiefs in the country at 47, Zhou still professes to draw on his law education.

His province pioneered a draft "administrative procedural regulations" statute that seeks to promote transparency in decision making, improve government efficiency and ensure officials carry out their duties with more participation from the general public.

"The push for the regulation was related to my law background," Zhou said.

"I've been attaching importance to legal matters, caring about the legislative process and how statutes are implemented."

He said it is important to press ahead and overcome all odds in order to do a good job. That is exactly how we are cleaning Dongting Lake, the country's second largest body of freshwater, and successfully dealing with the devastating snowstorms of earlier this year.

"We've closed 234 paper mills around the 'mother lake of Hunan' to reverse pollution, with a provincial government budget of more than 300 million yuan ($42 million)," Zhou said.

During the province's struggle against the blizzards in January and February, Zhou, his colleagues and soldiers mobilized for relief efforts spent days and nights with drivers and travelers stuck on the highways, providing them with basic necessities and working out solutions to ease traffic.

(China Daily 03/12/2008 page6)