2005 China Fiscal Development Report: Information, Decision-making, and Responsibilities of Public Finance

Author: Research Center for Public Policy, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: The 2005 China Fiscal Development Report focuses on the information, decision-making, and responsibilities of public finance. Building on a summary of the fiscal and economic performance in 2004, it provides an outlook on the development trends of public finance in 2005. At the same time, it highlights the need to pay special attention to the institutional development of China's public finance in response to the five major issues exposed in the National Audit Office's audit report. Unlike previous reports, which primarily focused on arguing what the government should do, how it should do it, and what policies are appropriate, this report attempts to shift to another theme: what kind of decision-making system can produce appropriate policies and ensure that the government does what it should.
Part I analyzes the fiscal and economic performance of China in 2004 and the main fiscal and tax policies, along with predictions and outlooks for 2005. Part II to Part IV are thematic discussions on the information and institutional development of public finance. The fundamental viewpoint of this report is that for public finance, discussing what the government should do is not enough; it is essential to further analyze how to enable the government to do what it should. The identification and protection of the public interest must rely on a transparent, democratic decision-making and oversight system that fully reflects the public's needs and desires. Part II discusses the technical standards that public finance statistics should meet to comprehensively, systematically, timely, and accurately reflect the information needed for public participation in the decision-making process. Information recorded in standardized ways must be made known to the public through effective institutional channels to play a role in public participation and oversight. Therefore, Part III explores how to improve the transparency of public finance and strengthen the democracy of decision-making, with a focus on institutional development in the decision-making process. Part IV analyzes the institutional development in the implementation of public finance, primarily including supervision during implementation, performance evaluations both during and after the process, and accountability systems.