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

Author: 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 prospects for 2005. Parts II to IV are thematic discussions on public finance information and institutional development. 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 various effective institutional channels to play a role in public participation in decision-making and supervision. Therefore, Part III focuses on how to improve the transparency of public finance and strengthen the democracy of decision-making, with a particular emphasis on the institutional development in the public finance decision-making process.
Part IV analyzes the institutional development in the implementation of public finance, mainly including supervision during the implementation process, performance evaluations before and after events, and accountability systems.