Pudong to regulate service centers

The Pudong New Area has announced a set of directives to manage and regulate the 1,282 neighborhood service centers in 36 communities, towns and villages in the district.

The centers are a one-stop service for residents to deal with various administrative issues, including residence permits for foreigners. 

Previously there were no governing regulations, complicating the efforts of both service providers and receivers. 

Shanghai is governed by more than 100 regulations that serve urban dwellers well but they lack specific standards for districts, according to Lu Fangzhou, deputy director of Pudong.

New ways of managing neighborhoods are emerging amid the city’s call for effective governance. But a lack of regulations can lead to chaos and cannot guarantee service quality.

The new rules are thus aimed at improving the situation.

Pudong and the city’s quality and technology supervision authority have issued the directives and an evaluation system to test the performance of grassroot officials.

The new measures and the evaluation system will be tested first in the free trade zone.

“It is not mandatory. Instead, it acts like a suggestion to the grassroot service providers and a commitment from the government to the residents,” said Chen Xiaojun, deputy director of Shanghai Quality and Technology Supervision Bureau.

The measures will ensure working hours for officials, the services they provide, a unified logo and even layouts such as like reception space and counselling rooms, and areas for holding activities.

“Once we try out the new measures, we may extend it to cover the whole of Pudong. It can be used later as a reference by the city authorities,” said Lu.

Pudong started building “neighborhood service centers” in May 2017 to provide multiple services to residents at their doorstep.

Most of them are in neighborhood committees. They provide more than 120 services that includes elderly and medical care.

The Lianyang Community is a high-end foreigner-friendly community. The center at this venue allows foreigners to apply for residence documents and even offers Chinese classes. In rural Xuanqiao and Datuan towns there are classes available for agricultural training.