The people of Guangdong province will have a much greater say in the evaluation of a government official's administrative performance.

According to the final draft of a new guideline which takes effect on June 12, the administrative performance of city-level government officials and above will be subject to an annual assessment by grassroots Party representatives, deputies to the city-level people's congress, members of the city-level political consultative conference, and others.

The evaluators will number more than 200.

Officials who gain the satisfaction of least 90 percent of the evaluators will be considered excellent, those approved by one-third of the evaluators, basically competent, and those dissatisfied by 50 percent of the evaluators, incompetent.

And city-level government departments will be authorized to assess their corresponding provincial government departments.

The evaluation will be a decisive factor in the promotion, demotion, reward, punishment, and further training opportunities for city-level officials and above.

Those considered incompetent or basically competent for two consecutive years will be subject to job transfers or demotion.

Those considered excellent or competent for three consecutive years will have an opportunity to be promoted.

Ren Jiantao, a professor of public administration with the Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University, said the new guideline is innovative enough to allow the public as well as subordinates have a say in the evaluation process.

"When subordinates have a say in the evaluation of their superiors, the latter will naturally improve their administrative work style and will not turn a cold shoulder to them so often," he said.

"And when an official's promotion is based on the evaluation of the public, he or she will naturally be less bureaucratic."

Chen Jianhua, municipal Party secretary of the province's Heyuan city, praised the guideline as the GDP index will now become less important in the evaluation of officials in the future.

He also said the move to apply different evaluation parameters to cities of different economic development will help in the planning of better sustainable development strategies in the province.

Editor: Yan