More experiences and skills are needed to improve the management of urban public services, says an article in China Youth Daily. An excerpt follows:

Shenzhen in Guangdong Province is reported to be mulling over draft local legislation on the franchise management of the city's public services.

The draft legislation sets a 50-year time span for franchise management. This, however, is criticized as being too long a timeframe to ensure efficiency and to guarantee consumers' interests.

As the economy and urbanization speed up, public services have similarly developed quickly in recent years.

Because of the unique characteristics of public services, they are usually monopolized or run by several giant enterprises under the supervision of the government.

Allowing private enterprises to manage public services through franchises is a widely used solution to improving the efficiency of the services as well as to protecting public interests from being violated by managing enterprises.

Under this sort of arrangement, the enterprises being granted franchised management rights covering public services must negotiate with the government in advance, to settle prices and accept rules of supervision in return for modest profits.

The time limit of a franchise is one of the best means to strike a balance between maintaining the quality of public services and management efficiency.

Choosing an appropriate time limit could both stimulate the development of enterprises and guarantee the quality of the services they deliver.

Therefore, such a time limit should be tailored to the conditions on the ground in each city and each service sector.

But further consideration is needed before such a limit is written into local legislation.